UAV Communication Channel Measurement, Modeling, and Application

As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) deployment is shifting from military to civilian sectors, and in particular as a means of facilitating more flexible and versatile wireless communications, the UAV channels that were previously not well understood are attracting increasing research and investigation. As the key component facilitating the UAV-aided communications, UAV channel characteristics and modeling are of critical importance to the designed UAV system to achieve satisfactory performance. In this article, we will provide a comprehensive overview and the future perspective of envisioned UAV communication system benefits, the existing and needed UAV channel measurements and modeling approaches, together with the new viewpoint of UAV channel applications in different communication and networking layers. Both existing work and future directions are extensively covered.