The integration of drones into cellular wireless networks follows two philosophies epitomized as what can drones do for networks and what can networks do for drones, respectively, and we are pursuing research on both these fronts.

On the first front, and in collaboration with the University of California at Irvine, we are investigating how to have drones serve as flying access points. In contrast with classical infrastructure, which is fixed on the ground upon deployment, aerial access points can modify their positions to accommodate changes in the quantity, positions, and requirements of the users being serviced by the network. At the same time, drones are battery-driven and hence subject to severe energy constraints. Our first set of results confirming the superior performance of aerial access points have been published at:

• C. Diaz-Vilor, A. Lozano, H. Jafarkhani, “Cell-Free UAV Networks: Asymptotic Analysis and Deployment Optimization,” IEEE Trans. Wireless Communications, Vol. 22, 2023.

On the second front, and in collaboration with CTTC and Huawei, we are investigating how to integrate drones as an additional class of users. In particular, we are exploring how, in urban environments, such drone users should be joinly serviced by terrestrial access points and by satellites in order to maximize the coverage enjoyed by both classes of users while keeping interference among them at a minimum. Our initial findings have been publised in the award-winning paper:

• M. Benzaghta, G. Geraci, R. Nikbakht, D. Lopez-Perez, “UAV Communications in Integrated Terrestrial and Non-terrestrial Networks,” IEEE Global Commun. Conf. (GLOBECOM), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dec. 2022.