Impact of Device Caching and Handovers on the Performance of 3D UAV Networks with Blockages

We investigate an urban network characterized by blockages, where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer ad-hoc coverage to mobile users with distinct service rate requirements. The UAV-BSs are modeled using a two-dimensional (2-D) marked-poisson point process (MPPP), where the marks represent the altitude of each UAV-base station (UAV-BS). Initially, we model the network blockages and analyze the association probabilities of line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) UAV-BSs using stochastic geometry. Subsequently, we derive the bth moment of the conditional success probability (CSP) and employ a meta distribution (MD)-based analytical framework of signal-to-interference noise ratio (SINR) taking into account the blockage distribution in the network. Furthermore, we proposea cache-based handover management strategy that dynamically selects the cell search time and delays the received signal strength (RSS)-based base station (BS) associations. This strategy aims to minimize unnecessary handovers (HOs) experienced by users by leveraging caching capabilities at user equipment (UE). We evaluate the HO rate and average throughput experienced by users ensuring their service rate requirements are met. We demonstrate that LoS associations decrease as the network density increases due to the substantial increase of NLoS UAV-BSs in the network. Additionally, we show that the presence of blockages does not necessarily have a negative impact on network reliability