Using battery-saving modes in Quadcopter Relay networks

Abstract A new scheme for combining energy efficiency, relay location and spectral efficiency in a Quadcopter Relay (QR) network is proposed in this paper. The scheme enables the energy consumption of a QR network to be reduced under the constraints of data rate and limited power source. The QR network uses a quadcopter aircraft (commonly known as a drone) fitted with an amplify-and-forward relay to increase the range and flexibility of a communication system. The proposed scheme considers a quadcopter that has a hovering function. It enables the energy consumption to be evaluated for all hovering positions in the QR’s flight path and to set the position that gives the minimum energy consumption as the quadcopter’s reference location, which in turn minimizes the total energy consumption in the QR network. Numerical examples are provided to validate the analysis.