Modeling of packet dropout for UAV wireless communications

In this paper, we investigate the problem of channel modeling of packet dropout for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications. A two-state Markov model is proposed, which incorporates the effects of Ricean fading. The proposed model is able to capture the non-stationary packet dropout characteristics of the channels. A closed-form solution is provided for estimating the model parameters from packet traces. Computer simulations and analysis are carried out to demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed model.