Throughput Performance of 4G-based UAV in a Sub-Urban Environment in Malaysia

The demand for cellular connected Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is getting more attention recently due to the various applications which desire for an `eagle eye' view. The wide coverage of cellular network provides the possibility of unlimited range of UAV operation. Since the cellular network is fundamentally designed to optimize the performance of terrestrial users, investigation of the feasibility of the existing cellular network for aerial users is crucial. This paper presents the work carried out to model the throughput performance of a typical sub-urban environment in Malaysia in the presence of both terrestrial and aerial users. We present the analysis of throughput performance under the coexistence of aerial and terrestrial users where real measurements of received signal strength are used. Our results show that the connectivity of UAVs to the existing cellular network is reliable given that the operational height of UAVs is less than 40 m. For UAVs within the altitude of 40 m to 60 m, reliable connectivity and throughput performance can be achieved given that the probability of aerial users are kept at minimum level.