Air-Ground Channel Modeling Method Using Digital Elevation Data

In this paper, we propose an air-ground channel modeling method using digital elevation model data for unmanned aircraft system (UAS) communication systems. Until now, the air-ground channel models for the UAS communication system were derived based on the measurements from urban, suburban, mountainous, hilly, and over-water environments in the USA. However, they are disadvantageous when it comes to predicting the accurate channel attenuation considering the real terrain environments. In this study, the path loss value is estimated by extracting the altitude information of the cross-section between a transmitter and receiver and applying an appropriate channel attenuation model. The proposed method is validated by comparing the estimated results with actual flight test results.