Minimum-Throughput Maximization for Multi-UAV-Enabled Wireless-Powered Communication Networks

Sensors (Basel). 2019 Mar 27;19(7):1491. doi: 10.3390/s19071491.

Abstract

This paper considers a wireless-powered communication network (WPCN) system that uses multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Ground users (GUs) first harvest energy from a mobile wireless energy transfer (WET) UAV then use the energy to power their information transmission to a data gatherer (DG) UAV. We aim to maximize the minimum throughput for all GUs by jointly optimizing UAV trajectories, and the resource allocation of ET UAV and GUs. Because of the non-convexity of the formulated problem, we propose an alternating optimization algorithm, applying successive convex optimization techniques to solve the problem; the UAV trajectories and resource allocation are alternately optimized in each iteration. Numerical results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in different scenarios.

Keywords: UAV communications; minimum-throughput maximization; resource allocation; trajectory design.