Uplink-Downlink Decoupling Association Strategy Optimization for UAV Inspection in Multi-Hop Network

Efficient inspection of long-distance power transmission lines is essential for ensuring the reliability and safety of modern power systems. To this end, this paper studies a UAVbased power transmission lines inspection framework considering a long-distance multi-hop network. Given that the uplink video transmission requires a high data rate during the inspection process, while the downlink control signaling demands high reliability but low bandwidth, a significant imbalance arises between the uplink and downlink requirements. For this reason, we propose an uplink and downlink decoupling strategy and a decomposed optimization method to enhance video transmission performance during UAV inspection. For the uplink, we employ convex optimization to maximize the overall uplink throughput. For the downlink, an improved real relative encoding genetic algorithm ($\mathbf{R}^{2} \mathbf{G A}$) is developed to minimize the number of handovers. Simulation results validate the proposed approach, demonstrating improved communication efficiency and system reliability compared to conventional methods.