Energy-Efficient Optimization of Multi-UAV Assisted Smart Grids Networks

Energy-Efficient Optimization of Multi-UAV Assisted Smart Grids Networks

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being deployed in wireless communication systems to assist with traffic offloading services because of their high flexibility and mobility. In traditional cellular networks, communication performance often degrades at the cell edges during high-demand periods when base stations are overloaded. So UAVs can serve as aerial base stations to enhance communication performance in such hotspots. However, there is a challenge of limited energy capacity and insufficient computing capabilities. This paper focuses on maximizing the energy efficiency of aerial base stations (ABS) by optimizing the number of UAVs, the division of users and the allocation of bandwidth. We explore two UAV deployment strategies: multi-UAV hovering and multi-UAV cruising. Our simulation results reveal that the cruise deployment strategy nearly doubles the energy efficiency compared to the hovering strategy, provided that the number and flight speed of the UAVs are appropriately managed. This result provides an effective solution for the energy efficiency optimization of multi-UAV in communications hotspots.