Channel Modeling for Air-to-Ground Wireless Communication

In this paper, we discuss several large-scale fading models for different enviromnents. The COST231-Hata model is adapted for air-to-ground modeling. We propose two criteria for air-to- ground channel modelling based on test data derived from field testing in Beijing. We develop a new propagation model that is more suitable for air-to-ground communication that previous models. We focus on improving this propagation model using the field test data.

Physical Layer Security for UAV Communications:A Comprehensive Survey

Due to its high mobility and flexible deployment,unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)is drawing unprecedented interest in both military and civil applications to enable agile and ubiquitous connectivity.Mainly operating in an open environment,UAV communications benefit from dominant line-of-sight links;however,this on the other hand renders the communications more vulnerable to malicious attacks.Recently,physical layer security(PLS)has been introduced to UAV systems as an important complement to the conventional cryptography-based approaches.In this paper,a comprehensive survey on the current achievements of UAV-PLS is conducted.We first introduce the basic concepts including typical static/-mobile UAV deployment scenarios,the unique air-toground channel and aerial nodes distribution models,as well as various roles that a UAV may act when PLS is concerned.Then,we start by reviewing the secrecy performance analysis and enhancing techniques for statically deployed UAV systems,and extend the discussion to the more general scenario where the UAVs’mobility is further exploited.For both cases,respectively,we summarize the commonly adopted methodologies,then describe important works in the litera ture in detail.Finally,potential research directions and challenges are discussed to provide an outlook for future works in the area of UAV-PLS.

Opportunistic Usage of Maritime VHF Band—Deployment Challenges for a New Regulatory Framework

Similarly to other domains, maritime community requests for broadband services have been significantly increasing. Worldwide navigation footprint and the lack of practical alternatives to Satellite Communications (SATCOM) empower VHF band as the natural choice to support most of those demands. Nevertheless, the major challenge for an implementation of maritime broadband VHF services is unquestionably the spectrum availability and management. Eventually, the solution must include spectrum sharing, using a Cognitive Radio (CR) based approach, but unfortunately current regulatory framework and spectrum management regime are not appropriate for such concepts and emerging technologies. To overcome such constraints, it is necessary to address a whole field of regulatory and standardization issues in order to prepare an evolution towards a more flexible and dynamic approach to spectrum management and a transition that would ensure incumbents live operations and legacy systems. The required paradigm change encompasses a new policy definition, an enforcement mechanism implementation and a comprehensive transition plan. The presented analysis pretends to address the regulatory feasibility of a framework change, discusses its evolving process and points some challenges related with practical aspects associated to Quality of Service (QoS) enforcement metrics definition, centering the arguments in maritime VHF band.

NEW DYNAMIC SLOT ASSIGNMENT SCHEME OF SELF-ORGANIZED TDMA VHF DATA LINK

According to the analysis of the very high frequency (VHF) self organized time division multiple access (S TDMA) aviation data link, a new dynamic slot assignment scheme is proposed in this paper, which adopts variable data frame structure and can eliminate the effect of the idle slot on message delay. By using queue theory, the analysis models of the new scheme and previous scheme are presented, and the performance of message delay and that of system throughput are analyzed under two schemes. The simulation results show that the new scheme has a better performance than the previous one in the message delay and system throughput.

A Novel Flexible Antenna at Very High Frequency Band for On-Body Applications

This paper proposes a novel flexible antenna design operating at very high frequency(VHF)band for on-body applications such as human body communication(HBC).The antenna consists of back-to-back E-shaped fractal and complimentary structures designed over a thin flex-ible substrate.The overall design working on the principle of fractal geometries and capacitive coupling is highly beneficial to achieve better antenna characteristics even at low frequencies around 35 MHz-45 MHz that are being used for HBC application.The proposed antenna obtained a large bandwidth of around 10.0 MHz in air and a bandwidth of around 8.0 MHz during on-body opera-tion.The antenna has been tested in three different scenarios viz.air,on-body single antenna and on-body communication using two antennas.The insertion loss is reduced to a minimum in all three scenarios,which is quite beneficial for better signal transmission.The size miniaturization with high flexibility in such low frequencies has also been achieved in the paper that makes the proposed design suitable for human body communication applications.