Joint Optimization of UAV Trajectory and Communication Resources With Complete Avoidance of No-Fly-Zones

Abstract

In this paper, we explore a joint optimization of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) trajectory and communication resources with complete avoidance of no-fly-zones (NFZs). In particular, we introduce a new constraint that allows the UAV to perfectly avoid NFZs throughout the entire continuous trajectory with rigorous mathematical proof. Under the proposed constraint on NFZs, we aim to optimize the scheduling, transmit power, length of the time slot, and trajectory of the UAV to maximize the minimum throughput among ground nodes without violating NFZs. To find the optimal UAV strategy from the non-convex optimization problem formulated here, we use various optimization techniques, such as quadratic transform, successive convex approximation, and the block coordinate descent algorithm. Simulation results confirm that the proposed constraint prevents NFZs from being violated over the entire trajectory in any scenario. Furthermore, the proposed scheme shows significantly higher throughput than the baseline scheme using the traditional NFZ constraint by achieving a zero outage probability due to NFZ violations.