Impact of Weather Factors on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ Wireless Communications
As the applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) expand, reliable communication between UAVs and ground control stations is crucial for successful missions. However, adverse weather conditions caused by atmospheric gases, clouds, fog, rain, and turbulence pose challenges by degrading communicat...
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MDPI AG
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Future Internet |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/17/1/27 |
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| author | Lalan Mishra Naima Kaabouch |
| author_facet | Lalan Mishra Naima Kaabouch |
| author_sort | Lalan Mishra |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As the applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) expand, reliable communication between UAVs and ground control stations is crucial for successful missions. However, adverse weather conditions caused by atmospheric gases, clouds, fog, rain, and turbulence pose challenges by degrading communication signals. Although, some recent studies have explored the nature of signal attenuation caused by atmospheric weather variations, studies that compare the attenuation from various weather conditions and analyze the effect on available bandwidth are missing. This work aimed to address this research gap by thoroughly investigating the impact of atmospheric weather conditions on the bandwidth available for UAV communications. Quantitative and qualitative performance analyses were performed for various weather conditions using metrics such as attenuation and the bit error rate of the received signals associated with different modulation schemes and frequencies, using a linearly segmented attenuation model. The results indicate that atmospheric gases and clouds/fog affect wireless signal propagation; however, the effect of rain on the propagation distances and operating frequencies considered in this study was the most severe. Based on the influence of power transmission, operating frequency, modulation schemes, distance, and adverse weather conditions on the bit error rate and bandwidth suboptimization, we propose an algorithm to select the maximum operating frequency for reliable UAV link operation. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-def63edbf8df4915969c63a0586a0974 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1999-5903 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Future Internet |
| spelling | doaj-art-def63edbf8df4915969c63a0586a09742025-01-24T13:33:36ZengMDPI AGFuture Internet1999-59032025-01-011712710.3390/fi17010027Impact of Weather Factors on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ Wireless CommunicationsLalan Mishra0Naima Kaabouch1Artificial Intelligence Research Center, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USAArtificial Intelligence Research Center, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USAAs the applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) expand, reliable communication between UAVs and ground control stations is crucial for successful missions. However, adverse weather conditions caused by atmospheric gases, clouds, fog, rain, and turbulence pose challenges by degrading communication signals. Although, some recent studies have explored the nature of signal attenuation caused by atmospheric weather variations, studies that compare the attenuation from various weather conditions and analyze the effect on available bandwidth are missing. This work aimed to address this research gap by thoroughly investigating the impact of atmospheric weather conditions on the bandwidth available for UAV communications. Quantitative and qualitative performance analyses were performed for various weather conditions using metrics such as attenuation and the bit error rate of the received signals associated with different modulation schemes and frequencies, using a linearly segmented attenuation model. The results indicate that atmospheric gases and clouds/fog affect wireless signal propagation; however, the effect of rain on the propagation distances and operating frequencies considered in this study was the most severe. Based on the influence of power transmission, operating frequency, modulation schemes, distance, and adverse weather conditions on the bit error rate and bandwidth suboptimization, we propose an algorithm to select the maximum operating frequency for reliable UAV link operation.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/17/1/27UAVUASground control station (GCS)command and control (C2)attenuationbit error rate (BER) |
| spellingShingle | Lalan Mishra Naima Kaabouch Impact of Weather Factors on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ Wireless Communications Future Internet UAV UAS ground control station (GCS) command and control (C2) attenuation bit error rate (BER) |
| title | Impact of Weather Factors on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ Wireless Communications |
| title_full | Impact of Weather Factors on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ Wireless Communications |
| title_fullStr | Impact of Weather Factors on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ Wireless Communications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact of Weather Factors on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ Wireless Communications |
| title_short | Impact of Weather Factors on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ Wireless Communications |
| title_sort | impact of weather factors on unmanned aerial vehicles wireless communications |
| topic | UAV UAS ground control station (GCS) command and control (C2) attenuation bit error rate (BER) |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/17/1/27 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lalanmishra impactofweatherfactorsonunmannedaerialvehicleswirelesscommunications AT naimakaabouch impactofweatherfactorsonunmannedaerialvehicleswirelesscommunications |