Machine Learning Based Clustering and Modeling for 6G UAV-to-Ground Communication Channels

Towards the sixth-generation (6G) wireless communication, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been regarded as an indispensable part due to its flexible deployment, wide coverage, and high mobility. This also creates challenges for channel research. Scatterers are normally present in the structure...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on vehicular technology 2024-10, Vol.73 (10), p.14113-14126
Main Authors: Zhang, Zhaolei, Liu, Yu, Wang, Cheng-Xiang, Chang, Hengtai, Bian, Ji, Zhang, Jingfan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
6G mobile communication
Algorithms
Autonomous aerial vehicles
channel modeling
cluster characterization
Clustering
Clustering algorithms
Clustering methods
Communication
Communication channels
Communications systems
Delays
Machine learning
Markov chains
Millimeter wave communication
Modelling
Probabilistic models
UAV communications
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Wireless communication
Wireless communications
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Summary:Towards the sixth-generation (6G) wireless communication, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been regarded as an indispensable part due to its flexible deployment, wide coverage, and high mobility. This also creates challenges for channel research. Scatterers are normally present in the structure of clusters during UAV communication, and cluster-based channel modeling is significant. In this paper, the variational Bayesian-Gaussian mixture model (VB-GMM) algorithm is proposed for clustering, which takes into account the time-space properties. Cluster tracking is implemented using the multipath component distance (MCD) algorithm. Intra- and inter-cluster characterization, such as the number of clusters, cluster power distribution, angular/delay offset, and angular/delay spreads, are well studied. Moreover, cluster lifetime and birth-death (B-D) properties are extracted and analyzed. Based on these cluster characteristics acquired by machine learning (ML) method, a novel UAV-to-ground communication channel model is proposed, and a four-state Markov chain is also introduced to portray the evolution of clusters. Simulation results match well with channel measurements, which verifies the practicality of the proposed model. This paper can give theoretical and technical support for the design and evaluation of UAV-to-ground communication systems.
ISSN:0018-9545
1939-9359
DOI:10.1109/TVT.2024.3403190