Exploring UAV Networking from the Terrain Information Completeness Perspective: A Tutorial

Terrain information is a crucial factor affecting the performance of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks.

As a tutorial, this article provides a unique perspective on the completeness of terrain information, summarizing and enhancing the research on terrain-based UAV deployment.

In the presence of complete terrain information, two highly discussed topics are UAV-aided map construction and dynamic trajectory design based on maps.

We propose a case study illustrating the mutually reinforcing relationship between them.

When terrain information is incomplete, and only terrain-related feature parameters are available, we discuss how existing models map terrain features to blockage probabilities.

By introducing the application of this model with stochastic geometry, a case study is proposed to analyze the accuracy of the model.

When no terrain information is available, UAVs gather terrain information during the real-time networking process and determine the next position by collected information.

This real-time search method is currently limited to relay communication.

In the case study, we extend it to a multi-user scenario and summarize three trade-offs of the method.

Finally, we conduct a qualitative analysis to assess the impact of three factors that have been overlooked in terrain-based UAV deployment.