Joint HAP deployment and resource allocation for HAP‐UAV‐terrestrial integrated networks

Abstract

Abstract While the terrestrial base stations (TBSs) in the fifth‐generation (5G) network provide high throughput for the conventional terrestrial users (TUs), it is still challenging for the network to support massive TUs and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) simultaneously due to the complicated air–ground channel and severe interference. In this paper, the deployment of a high‐altitude platform (HAP) as a supplement for the terrestrial networks, in which the HAP and TBSs serve TUs and UAVs simultaneously in a joint manner, is studied. The novel network has two challenges. First, the deployment of the HAP, which is a new degree of freedom, should be optimized considering the terrestrial network. Second, the channel of the joint HAP and TBS network that serves multiple TUs and UAVs concurrently is complicated, and the resource allocation of the network should be designed. To tackle the above two challenges, a joint resource allocation and HAP deployment problem are formulated, and a gradient‐and‐matching‐based algorithm is proposed to solve it efficiently. Simulation results show that the HAP and the proposed algorithm enhance the sum‐rate of the network by over 30%, and the average data rate of both the TUs and the UAVs can be effectively improved.