Stochastic Geometry Analysis of Hybrid Aerial Terrestrial Networks with mmWave Backhauling

To best provision the wireless data deluge, service providers are increasingly considering the use of Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for enhancing wireless connectivity. UAVs are especially important in case of disasters and accidents which may cripple terrestrial networks. In order to maintain the communication of UAVs with the core network, it becomes particularly important to connect UAVs to terrestrial base stations (BSs) via wireless backhaul links. In this work, we use stochastic geometry to study the impact of millimeter-wave (mmWave) backhauling of UAVs in a hybrid aerial-terrestrial cellular network, where the UAVs are added to assist terrestrial BSs in delivering service to users (UEs). In the proposed model, the UE can associate with either a terrestrial BS or a UAV connected to a BS to get backhaul support. The performance of the model is evaluated in terms of coverage probability and validated against intensive simulations. The obtained results unveil that the quality of the UAVs backhaul link has a significant role in improving the UEs experience. The results further illustrate the impact of the different UAVs heights regimes on the coverage probability.