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Auteurs principaux: Rahman, Mushfiqur, Guvenc, Ismail, Ramirez, David, Wong, Chau-Wai
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.06494
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author Rahman, Mushfiqur
Guvenc, Ismail
Ramirez, David
Wong, Chau-Wai
author_facet Rahman, Mushfiqur
Guvenc, Ismail
Ramirez, David
Wong, Chau-Wai
contents Deployment of cellular networks in urban areas requires addressing various challenges. For example, high-rise buildings with varying geometrical shapes and heights contribute to signal attenuation, reflection, diffraction, and scattering effects. This creates a high possibility of coverage holes (CHs) within the proximity of the buildings. Detecting these CHs is critical for network operators to ensure quality of service, as customers in these areas may experience weak or no signal reception. To address this challenge, we propose an approach using an autonomous vehicle, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), to detect CHs, for minimizing drive test efforts and reducing human labor. The UAV leverages reinforcement learning (RL) to find CHs using stored local building maps, its current location, and measured signal strengths. As the UAV moves, it dynamically updates its knowledge of the signal environment and its direction to a nearby CH while avoiding collisions with buildings. We created a wide range of testing scenarios using building maps from OpenStreetMap and signal strength data generated by NVIDIA Sionna raytracing simulations. The results show that the RL-based approach outperforms non-machine learning, geometry-based methods in detecting CHs in urban areas. Additionally, even with a limited number of UAV measurements, the method achieves performance close to theoretical upper bounds that assume complete knowledge of all signal strengths.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_06494
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle UAV-Assisted Coverage Hole Detection Using Reinforcement Learning in Urban Cellular Networks
Rahman, Mushfiqur
Guvenc, Ismail
Ramirez, David
Wong, Chau-Wai
Signal Processing
Deployment of cellular networks in urban areas requires addressing various challenges. For example, high-rise buildings with varying geometrical shapes and heights contribute to signal attenuation, reflection, diffraction, and scattering effects. This creates a high possibility of coverage holes (CHs) within the proximity of the buildings. Detecting these CHs is critical for network operators to ensure quality of service, as customers in these areas may experience weak or no signal reception. To address this challenge, we propose an approach using an autonomous vehicle, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), to detect CHs, for minimizing drive test efforts and reducing human labor. The UAV leverages reinforcement learning (RL) to find CHs using stored local building maps, its current location, and measured signal strengths. As the UAV moves, it dynamically updates its knowledge of the signal environment and its direction to a nearby CH while avoiding collisions with buildings. We created a wide range of testing scenarios using building maps from OpenStreetMap and signal strength data generated by NVIDIA Sionna raytracing simulations. The results show that the RL-based approach outperforms non-machine learning, geometry-based methods in detecting CHs in urban areas. Additionally, even with a limited number of UAV measurements, the method achieves performance close to theoretical upper bounds that assume complete knowledge of all signal strengths.
title UAV-Assisted Coverage Hole Detection Using Reinforcement Learning in Urban Cellular Networks
topic Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.06494