Strategic Densification with UAV-BSs in Cellular Networks

Using base stations mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV-BSs) is a promising new evolution of wireless networks for the provision of on-demand high data rates. While many studies have explored deploying UAV-BSs in a green field —no existence of terrestrial BSs (T-BSs), this paper focuses on the deployment of UAV-BSs in the presence of a terrestrial network. The purpose of this article is twofold: To provide supply-side estimation for how many UAV-BSs are needed to support a terrestrial network so as to achieve a particular quality of service and to investigate where these UAV-BSs should hover. We propose a novel stochastic geometry-based network planning approach that focuses on the structure of the network to find strategic placement for multiple UAV-BSs in a large-scale network.