Line‐of‐sight probability for UAV communications in 3D grid urban streets

Abstract

Abstract In this letter, the authors present a novel expression for the probability of line‐of‐sight (LoS) between a UAV and ground users situated on a gridded street within urban and dense urban environments. Firstly, this study conducts extensive ray‐tracing simulations, encompassing over 50,000 receivers positioned along streets in Brooklyn and Manhattan, respectively. Moreover, the impact of street width on the probability of LoS is investigated, considering three different average widths. By fitting the LoS probability data corresponding to the UAV's elevation angle in two urban environments obtained by simulations, a unified expression representing the relationship between the LoS probability and the UAV's elevation angle is obtained. This obtained LoS probability expression is compared with three existing expressions. The findings presented in this letter can provide some valuable insights for analytical studies on channel modelling between UAVs and ground‐based street users including vehicles.

Keywords

• commutation
• probability
• ray tracing