Dynamic Base Station Repositioning to Improve Performance of Drone Small Cells

摘要

Thanks to the recent advancements in drone technology, it has become viableand cost-effective to quickly deploy small cells in areas of urgent needs byusing a drone as a cellular base station. In this paper, we explore the benefitof dynamically repositioning the drone base station in the air to reduce thedistance between the BS and the mobile user equipment, thereby improving thespectral efficiency of the small cell. In particular, we propose algorithms toautonomously control the repositioning of the drone in response to usersactivities and movements. We demonstrate that, compared to a drone hovering ata fixed location, dynamic repositioning of the drone moving with high speed canincrease spectral efficiency by 15\%. However, considering the tradeoff betweenspectral efficiency and energy efficiency of the drone, we show that 10.5\%spectral efficiency gain can be obtained without negatively affecting energyconsumption of the drone.