Energy efficiency maximization for IRS-assisted UAV short packet communication

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-92874-0
• Publication Date: 2025-03-17T12:15:36Z
• Authors: Hang Hu; Senhao Zhao; Yangchao Huang; Kuanhao Yu; Qiaoyan Kang; Guobing Cheng

Abstract With the development of the sixth generation wireless communication networks, low latency is required to support its applications. In order to meet the low latency requirement, short packet communication is considered to be used, in which a ground sensor transmits the sensing information to a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In this paper, we consider maximizing the energy efficiency of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted UAV short packet communication by optimizing the UAV’s speed, trajectory, transmit power and passive beamforming of IRS. Since the maximization problem is nonconvex with respect to the system parameters, this problem is difficult to be solved. Therefore, the successive convex approximation method is employed and a joint iterative optimization algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. In the simulation parts, it is shown that the algorithm proposed in this paper has good convergence performance. And there exists an optimal value of flight speed for the UAV to minimize the energy consumption. In addition, it is found that the application of IRS can improve the energy efficiency effectively.