Ultraviolet communications for unmanned aerial vehicle networks

Abstract

Due to the strong scattering, ultraviolet (UV) communication links enable non-line-of-sight (NLOS) outdoor connectivity and relax the pointing, acquisition, and tracking requirements encountered in infrared links. This feature makes the UV communications attractive, in particular, for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks where link alignment is hard to realize. In this letter, we study the performance of the uplink of a ground sensor network where a UAV periodically visits the area to receive the data from serial sensor nodes. The transmission from the closest sensor to the flying UAV is the desired signal while the received signals from other nodes are treated as interference. We derive the bit error rate for the uplink airborne UV in the presence of interference. Numerical results are provided to validate our theoretical analysis and investigate the effect of interferers on the system performance.