Ultraviolet communications for ground-to-air links

Abstract

Ultraviolet (UV) communication enables non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless connectivity through strong molecular and aerosol scattering. Due to their NLOS nature, UV links bring robustness to blockage or shadowing and relax the pointing, acquisition and tracking requirements. This feature is particularly appealing for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks. In this paper, we consider the uplink of a ground sensor network where a number of sensor nodes are placed on the ground in a serial manner and with equal intra-distances. A UAV periodically visits the area and collects the sensor data from ground nodes. For the uplink transmission under consideration, we investigate the performance of UV-based system and determine the maximum UAV coverage to maintain a pre-defined bit error rate performance.