Sensing Performance of Cooperative Joint Sensing-Communication UAV Network

We propose a novel cooperative joint sensing-communication (JSC) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) network that can achieve downward-looking detection and transmit detection data simultaneously using the same time and frequency resources by exploiting the beam sharing scheme. The UAV network consists of a UAV that works as a fusion center (FCUAV) and multiple subordinate UAVs (SU). All UAVs fly at the fixed height. FCUAV integrates the sensing data of network and carries out downward-looking detection. SUs carry out downward-looking detection and transmit the sensing data to FCUAV. To achieve the beam sharing scheme, each UAV is equipped with a novel JSC antenna array that is composed of both the sensing subarray (SenA) and the communication subarray (ComA) in order to generate the sensing beam (SenB) and the communication beam (ComB) for detection and communication, respectively. SenB and ComB of each UAV share a total amount of radio power. Because of the spatial orthogonality of communication and sensing, SenB and ComB can be easily formed orthogonally. The upper bound of average cooperative sensing area (UB-ACSA) is defined as the metric to measure the sensing performance, which is related to the mutual sensing interference and the communication capacity. Numerical simulations prove the validity of the theoretical expressions for UB-ACSA of the network. The optimal number of UAVs and the optimal SenB power are identified under the total power constraint.