UAV-assited Wireless Powered Sensor Network over
Rician Shadowed Fading Channels
Stefan Panic
School of Computer Science and Robotics,
National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University
Tomsk, Russia
stefanpnc@tpu.ru
Dushantha Nalin K. Jayakody
School of Computer Science and Robotics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics,
National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University
Tomsk, Russia
nalin@tpu.ru
Abstract—In this paper, we are observing scenario of un-
manned aerial vehicle (UAV) data collection from sensor network,
where each sensor harvests energy from the data-collecting UAV
for its own information transmission. In first time instant, the
wireless energy transfer (WET) to sensor nodes is performed,
while in second time instant UAV collects data from sensor nodes.
In order to take into account the possibility of occurrence of
obstacles, that could block the line-of-sight (LOS) link in-between
sensor nodes and UAV, and to in order to observe fluctuations of
the LOS signal that are brought by shadowing effect, we have
used the assumption of Rician Shadowed fading channels and
analyzed the outage probability (OP) properties of such network.
Closed form expression are derived for OP, and OP features are
observed and discussed in the function of system parameters such
are shadowing severity, targeted information rate, UAV location,
and the time ratio of WET.
Index Terms—5G communication, Rician Shadowed fading
channels, sensor network, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), wire-
less energy transfer (WET).
I. I NTRODUCTION
Various aspects of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) ap-
pliance in wireless communications have been extensively
studied recently, due to their potential advantages that arise
because of the appliance of unconventional fixed-topology
networks, such are potential cost effectiveness and deployment
flexibility. Some of the most prominent UAVs applications
of are flying base stations (BSs) and flying relays [1], [2],
[3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. It is shown that communication network
realized by flying relays serviced by UAVs can be an efficient
solution for improving the system capacity and reliability.
In [4] optimal deployment of UAVs as relaying nodes was
analyzed, while in [5] outage probability (OP) of the fixed-
wing UAV relaying was observed. Optimization of the transmit
power allocation for the source and relay and optimization of
This work was funded, in part, by the Russian Federation State Project Sci-
ence, Grant No. 8.13264.2018/8.9. This research was supported by the Serbian
MI SANU project III44006. The authors would also like to acknowledge the
IRACON CA15104.
Tharindu D. Ponnimbaduge Perera
School of Computer Science and Robotics,
National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University
Tomsk, Russia
ponnimbaduge@tpu.ru
Caslav Stefanovic Bojan Prlincevic
Department of Informatics,
University of Pristina High Technical College Zvecan
Ksovska Mitrovica, Serbia Zvecan, Serbia
caslav.stefanovic@pr.ac.rs b.prlincevic@vts-zvecan.edu.rs
trajectories for the UAV have been observed in [6] and [8],
for the case of fixed-location UAV relaying with maximized
throughput and for the case of energy efficiency maximization,
respectively.
Since wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are subjected to
limited energy storage at each mobile node, reduction of
energy consumption (extension of sensor node battery life)
has evolved as a mainstream research issue in WSNs. Various
energy harvesting (EH) sources have been studied in the
literature, however, the most sought after technique in this
regard is obtaining radio frequency (RF) energy from the
ambient transmitter sources. Capitalizing on the principle that
RF signals can carry both energy and information, various
realizations of wireless energy transfer (WET) and wireless
information transmission (WIT) have been investigated. In
recent researches [9], [10] and [11], the usage of UAV in
conjunction with WET have been studied, with the main focus
set on the trajectory optimization and resource allocation for
the purpose of maximal throughput obtaining. In [12], authors
have considered a UAV data collection sensor network, where
each sensor is also powered for its signal transmission through
WET by observed UAV. Authors have observed such WET
scenario for the case when line-of-sight (LOS) wireless envi-
ronment, modeled by Rician fading model, has been assumed.
Problem of characterization of the random nature of most
of the fading models for WSN communications, can be re-
duced to the problem of characterization of complex Gaussian
random processes. In such fading modeling is important to
take into account the possibility that arbitrary obstacles in
propagation path could block the LOS link in between network
nodes, so phenomenons brought by shadowing effect and
fluctuations of the LOS signal must be taken into account. In
order to account the fluctuations of the LOS or scattered signal
contributions brought by shadowing effect, several composite
fading models have been proposed in the literature [13], [14],
[15]. Here, we are focusing on the Rician shadowed fadiong
model [13], which has general properties since it can cover Let us denote the location of the kth sensor by (rk , φk ) in
four different shadowing scenarios: infrequent light shadow- the polar coordinates on the ground plane, in that case, the
ing, frequent heavy shadowing, overall results and average distance (Euclidean) between the UAV and the kth sensor is
shadowing scenarios. In [16] Rician shadowed fading model given by: q
has been observed for the analysis of UAV assisted relaying d2k = h2 + rk2 . (1)
communication with EH, but it was only approximated with
Gamma fading model. Let ρk denote the path loss between the kth node and UAV,
In this paper, we consider UAV data collection from sensor then:
κ
network, where each sensor harvests energy from the data- ρ2k = 2m , (2)
dk
collecting UAV for its own information transmission. This
scenario corresponds to the case when the coordination of data where m denotes the path-loss exponent and κ denotes the
collection through ground transportation is difficult, as is often constant coefficient of the path loss.
the case with the sensor nodes located in the hazardous areas. It is assumed that all the sensor nodes transmit at constant
In first time instant the WET to sensor nodes is performed, information rate denoted by R per channel, and that there is no
spending the time duration of αT , with α ∈ (0, 1), while interference among the sensor node, since different orthogonal
in second time instant UAV collects data from sensor nodes, channels are assigned. In such case, when is assumed that all
during the time period of (1 − α)T . In order to take into sensors equipped with a rechargeable battery store the energy
account the possibility of occurrence of obstacles, that could harvested in the first phase, for a given amount of power P0
block the LOS link in-between sensor nodes and UAV and transmitted by UAV, the harvested energy by the kth sensor
to in order to observe fluctuations of the LOS signal that are during the first phase can be expressed as:
brought by shadowing effect, we use the assumption of Rician Ek = η|hk |2 ρk P0 × αT, (3)
Shadowed fading channels. For such scenario, closed form
expression are derived for OP, and OP features are observed where η denotes the energy conversion efficiency coefficient.
and discussed in the function of system parameters such are Since is assumed that all of the energy is used to attempt to
shadowing severity, targeted information rate, UAV location, transmit data in the second phase, the transmit power by the
and the time ratio of each time instant. kth sensor node, PS,k , can be expressed as:
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section
Ek α
II presents the UAV assisted WSN powered system model PS,k = =η |hk |2 ρk P0 . (4)
and describes its protocol. In Section III, the closed-form (1 − α)T 1−α
expression for the OP is derived. Section IV presents obtained Consequently, the SNR of the signal received by UAV from
numerical results, while concluding remarks are given in the kth node in the second phase can be expressed as:
Section V. α P0
γU,k = |gk |2 |hk |2 ρ2k η , (5)
II. S YSTEM M ODEL 1 − α Pn
where Pn denotes the power of additive Gaussian white noise
UAV assisted WSN powered system is presented at Fig. 1,
(AWGN). The achievable information rate for data collection
where the UAV is located at height of h from the center of
of the kth sensor node can be given by:
circular service area, and sensor nodes with single antenna
are randomly located within the area, so the data collection Ck = (1 − α) log2 (1 + γU,k ). (6)
process takes place when the UAV reaches the center of the
service area. hk and gk denote the downlink and uplink com- As previously said, due to the flight conditions of the UAV, the
plex channel coefficients, respectively, which are statistically channels content a LOS components affected by the shadowing
independent for all k. effect, so the corresponding PDF of Xi , Xi ∈ (|gk |2 , |hk |2 ),
can be modeled as:
!
mmi (1 + κi )
i
(1 + κi )Xi
fXi (Xi ) = exp −
(κi + mi )mi x̄i x̄i
!
κi (1 + κi )Xi
×1 F1 mi , 1, , (7)
x̄i (mi + κi )

where 1 F1 (x) denotes the conuent hypergeometric function

Fig. 1. The proposed system model.
[17], parameter 2bi denotes the average power of scatter com-
ponent, while parametr mi denotes fading severity parameter.
Ωi
Parameter κi is defined as ratio of powewrs, κi = 2b i
, where
Ωi denotes the average power of LOS component, while x̄i ,
x̄i = E[Xi ], represents average channel SNR value. Rician
shadowed link parameter values for corresponding shadowing
 TABLE I modified Bessel function of the second kind, given with
O BSERVED VALUES OF SYSTEM PARAMETERS Eq.(8.807) from [17].
Now the OP of (10), P r(zk Z|rk ), P r(zk Z|rk ) =
Parameter Numerical Value R Z(rk )
0
fzk (z)dz, as explained in Appendix, can be expressed
Distance from ground to UAV h = 500m
as:
Targeted data rate of each sensor R = 1 bit
∞ X ∞ t+s t+s
Energy conversion coefficient η = 0.9 X (1 + κg ) 2 +1 (1 + κh ) 2 +1
Path loss exponent m=3 P r(zk < Z|rk ) =
Noise power PN = -150 dBm s=0 t=0
(kg + mg )mg +s (kh + mh )mh +t
Constant coefficient of path loss κ = 1.3 m
rk = 200m
mg g mm h s t
h Γ(mg + s)Γ(mh + t)κg κh s+t
Cirkle radius (Z(rk )) 2 +1
t+s t+s
x¯g 2 +1 x¯h 2 +1 Γ(mg )Γ(mh )(s!)2 (t!)2

− s+t
 
(1 + κg )(1 + κh )
G2,1

Z(rk )  2
1,3 s−t t−s s+t
mode are provided in [15] as: heavy shadowing (mg = mh x¯g x¯h 2 , 2 ,− 2 − 1
= 0.739, bg = bh = 0.063, κg = κh = 0.00711, x¯g = x¯h = (12)
8.97×10−4 ), average shadowing (mg = mh = 10.1, bg = bh =
0.126,κg = κh = 4.0828, x¯g = x¯h = 0.835), overall shadowing where G2,1
1,3 (x)
denotes Meijer G function, given with
(mg = mh = 5.21, bg = bh = 0.251, κg = κh = 0.55387, x¯g = Eq.(9.301) from [17], while:
x¯h = 0.278) and light shadowing (mg = mh = 19.4, bg = bh q
= 0.158, κg = κh = 2.64241, x¯g = x¯h = 1.29). Z(rk ) = L(α, R, P0 /Pn )(h2 + rk2 )m . (13)
Closed form expressions from (12) rapidly converge, since we
III. P ERFORMANCE A NALYSIS
only need to sum up 15 − 20 terms in order to obtain accuracy
Under the assumption that the target information has a rate to the 5th significant digit, which corresponds to the case when
of R, the outage probability can be determined as [12]: the truncation error is negligible.

R
 OP is expressed by Eq. (12) in the function of the given
P r(Ck < R) = P r > log2 (1 + γU,k ) location of the sensor rk . When the sensor location is fixed,
1−α
 R  the minimization of the OP could be performed, by selecting
= P r 2 1−α > 1 + γU,k (8) optimal value of α∗ , α∗ ∈ (0, 1), for which OP would take
 R
 minimal value.
= P r γU,k < 2 1−α − 1
IV. N UMERICAL R ESULTS
|gk |2 |hk |2 κηα P0
 
R
= Pr < (2 1−α − 1)
(h2 + rk2 )m 1 − α Pn In this section, we have evaluated the OP feature and
observed it in the function of system parameters such are
|gk |2 |hk |2
 
= Pr < L(α, R, P 0 /P n ) , shadowing severity, targeted information rate, UAV location,
(h2 + rk2 )m and the time ratio of WET. Values of corresponding system
where: parameters used for evaluation are presented in Table I.
 R  1 1−αP First, at Fig.2 we have observed how shadowing severity
n
L(α, R, P0 /Pn ) = 2 1−α − 1 . (9) affects OP for given set of system parameters. Here OP values
κη α P0
are depicted versus the transmit power of UAV P0 for the case
For given rk , the above equation, P r(Ck < R), can be of α = 0.2, 0.5, 0.8 and rk = 200. It is visible that change in
expressed as [12]: shadowing conditions from light shadowing condition case to
s   ! hard shadowing case through overall shadowing case signifi-
P0 2 2 m cantly deteriorates system performances.
P r |gk hk | < L α, R, (h + rk ) . (10)
Pn In Fig. 3, two curves are plotted for each scenario when
overall shadowing case is observed. One of them depicts OP
As shown in the Appendix, the PDF of zk = |gk hk | is given averaged over the sensor node location assuming that they are
in the form of: located uniformly in the circular area of radius R, while other
∞ X ∞ m t+s t+s
one corresponds to that of the worst-case sensor node, the one
X 2mg g mm h
h
(1 + κg ) 2 +1 (1 + κ ) 2 +1
h
fzk (z) = m +s m +t 2 2 that is located at the edge of the circle, i.e., rk = R. For both
s=0 t=0
(kg + mg ) g (kh + mh ) h (s!) (t!)
 q  cases, as expected, Fig. 3 shows that the OP decreases as the
t+s z(1+κg )(1+κh )
Γ(mg + s)Γ(mh + t)κsg κth z 2 K(t−s) 2 transmit power of UAV increases.
x¯g x¯h
t+s t+s . At Fig. 4, we observe OP values as a function of time ratio
x¯g 2 +1 x¯h 2 +1 Γ(mg )Γ(mh ) α, for observed value of transmit power of UAV P0 = 35
(11) dB. Also is observed how shadowing severity affects OP for
given set of system parameters. It is visible from Fig.4, that
where Γ(x) denotes the Gamma function, given with increase of the time ratio α value, leads first to the decrease
Eq.(8.310) from [17], while Kv (z) denotes the v-th order of OP value and then to its expected increase. This can be
 1 1.0

heavy shadowing 0.9

light shadowing
0.8

0.7

Outage Probability
Outage Probability

light shadowing
overal shadowing 0.6
average shadowing

0.1 0.5 overal shadowing

0.4

0.3

= 0.2 0.2

= 0.5
0.1

= 0.8 P = 35 dB
0

0.01 0.0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

P [dBm]
0

Fig. 2. Outage probability versus the transmit power of UAV P0 . Fig. 4. Outage probability versus the time ratio α of UAV.

1
α parameter value change has more significant effect to OP
change, than in previous cases of consideration. Obtained
results are graphicaly presented and discussed in the function
of system parameters.
0.1
Outage Probability

1.0

0.01 = 0.2, analysis 0.9

= 0.5, analysis
0.8
= 0.8, analysis

= 0.2, sensor cell edge

0.7 overal shadowing
= 0.5, sensor cell edge
Outage probability

= 0.8, sensor cell edge 0.6

1E-3
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0.5

P [dBm]
0
0.4

light shadowing
0.3

Fig. 3. Outage probability versus the transmit power of UAV P0 . 0.2

0.1

0.0
explained by the fact that, due to initial increase of α, the 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

sensor nodes obtain more time to harvest energy from UAV, Transmission rate

which reduces OP values to some extend. However, further

reduction of transmission time, eventually leads to the increase
of OP. Change in shadowing conditions visibly influences OP
values, but behaviour of each curve is the same with respect
to time ratio α value. However, is visible that for the average
shadowing condition case OP values change less dynamically,
than comparing with OP changes for the light shadowing
condition case and overall shadowing condition case.
At Fig. 5, we observe OP versus information rate value,
R, for observed value of transmit power of UAV P0 = 40
dB. It has been assumed that sensor nodes are uniformly
distributed in the circular area of service. It is interesting
to observe here that increasing information rate leads to an
increase of the OP values. As the information rate increases,
the sensors need more time for information transmission, so
Fig. 5. Outage probability versus the transmit rate
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we have analyzed a UAV-aided data collecting
network, where the data transmitting sensor nodes are powered
by the UAV, over Rician Shadowed fading channels. Closed
form expression have been derived for the OP of each UAV-
sensor data link, and OP features are observed in the function
of link shadowing severity, targeted information rate, UAV
positioning, and the time ratio of WET.
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m
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x¯g 2 +1 x¯h 2 +1 Γ(mg )Γ(mh )(s!)2 (t!)2 0
  
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(16)
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