An UAV-Based Experimental Setup for Propagation Characterization in Urban Environment

A measurement setup, including millimeter-wave and ultrawideband transceivers mounted on both a customized unmanned aerial vehicle and a ground station and a measurement procedure for full 3-D wireless propagation analysis, is described in this work. The custom-made developed system represents a flexible solution for the characterization of wireless channels and especially of urban propagation, as the drone might be easily located almost anywhere from ground level to the buildings’ rooftop and beyond. The double-directional properties of the channel can be achieved by rotating directive antennas at the link ends. Other possible applications in urban contexts include the study of outdoor-to-indoor penetration, line-of-sight to non-line-of-sight transition, 3-D scattering from buildings, and air-to-ground channel characterization for drone-assisted wireless communications.