Determining allocation of unmanned aerial vehicle base stations in a wireless network

1 . A method of determining allocation of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) base stations in a wireless network, the method comprising:

defining an integer programming linear (ILP) problem for allocation of UAV base stations to one or more wireless communication devices in the wireless network, wherein the ILP problem is a minimization problem of determining a respective subset of available UAV base stations in the wireless network so as to minimize a value of an objective function of the ILP problem, wherein the value of the objective function indicates a number of available UAV base stations to be allocated in the wireless network;

expressing determination of allocation of UAV base stations to the one or more wireless communication devices in the wireless network as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem, which is the ILP problem; and

executing the QUBO problem on a quantum computing device to determine the allocation of UAV base stations to the one or more wireless communication devices in the wireless network.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining allocation of UAV base stations comprises determining a minimum number of UAV base stations for serving the one or more wireless communication devices.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the value of the objective function is based in part on characteristics of the respective subset of the available UAV base stations.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the value of the objective function is based on one or more of the following: locations of the available UAV base stations, locations of the one or more wireless communication devices, and coverage radiuses of the available UAV base stations.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more wireless communication devices have resource requirements that cannot be met by the wireless network.

6 . The method of claim 1 , comprising allocating UAV base stations in the wireless network according to a result of executing the QUBO problem on the quantum computing device.

7 . A method of determining allocation of channels in a wireless network, wherein each of the channels in the wireless network are useable for wireless communication between base stations and wireless communication devices in the wireless network, and wherein at least one of the base stations is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) base station, the method comprising:

defining an integer programming linear (ILP) problem for allocation of channels in the wireless network, wherein the ILP problem comprises a minimisation problem of determining a respective subset of available channels in the wireless network to be assigned so as to minimise a value of an objective function for the ILP problem, wherein the value of the objective function indicates a number of violations on the interference constraints represented by a compatibility matrix C;

expressing determination of allocation of channels in the wireless network as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem which is the ILP problem; and

executing the QUBO problem on a quantum computing device to determine the allocation of channels in the wireless network.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the compatibility matrix C represents one or more of:

a co-channel interference constraint, an adjacent channel interference constraint, and a co-site interference constraint.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the objective function includes one or more constraints, including a first constraint whereby the respective subset of available channels in the wireless communication devices to be assigned must fulfil the demands of wireless communication devices in each of the coverage regions to be served by the respective subset of available channels.

10 . The method of claim 7 , comprising allocating channels in the wireless network according to a result of executing the QUBO problem on the quantum computing device.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein expressing the ILP problem as the QUBO problem comprises:

expressing the objective function and constraints of the ILP problem as a combination of binary variables;

computing a Lagrangian multiplier using coefficients of the objective function;

transforming one or more constraints of the objective function into equivalent quadratic penalty functions;

combining the expression containing only binary variables and the penalty functions into a single quadratic expression equivalent to the form xTOx; and

determining the matrix Q from the quadratic expression, and wherein the binary variables in the expression containing only binary variables represent logical qubits in a problem graph for the quantum computing device.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of transforming one or more constraints of the objective function into equivalent quadratic penalty functions comprises, for a linear inequality constraint:

adding one or more slack variables to the linear inequality constraint and expressing slack variable in terms of binary variables to convert the linear inequality constraint to a matrix equation form; and

converting the matrix equation form to a quadratic penalty function.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of transforming one or more constraints of the objective function into equivalent quadratic penalty functions comprises, for a non-linear inequality constraint:

finding the coefficients of each term present in the penalty function of the non-linear inequality constraint.

14 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein executing the QUBO problem on the quantum computing device comprises performing a quantum annealing process.

15 . Apparatus for determining allocation of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) base stations in a wireless network, the apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the apparatus is operable to:

define an integer programming linear (ILP) problem for allocation of UAV base stations to one or more wireless communication devices in the wireless network, wherein the ILP problem is a minimization problem of determining a respective subset of available UAV base stations in the wireless network so as to minimize a value of an objective function of the ILP problem, wherein the value of the objective function indicates a number of available UAV base stations to be allocated in the wireless network;

express determination of allocation of UAV base stations to the one or more wireless communication devices in the wireless network as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem, which is the ILP problem; and

execute the QUBO problem on a quantum computing device to determine the allocation of UAV base stations to a one or more wireless communication devices in the wireless network.

16 . Apparatus for determining allocation of channels in a wireless network, wherein each of the channels in the wireless network are useable for wireless communication between base stations and wireless communication devices in the wireless network, and wherein at least one of the base stations is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) base station, the apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the apparatus is operable to:

define an integer programming linear (ILP) problem for allocation of channels in the wireless network, wherein the ILP problem is a minimization problem of determining a respective subset of available UAV base stations in the wireless network so as to minimize a value of an objective function of the ILP problem, wherein the value of the objective function indicates a number of available UAV base stations to be allocated in the wireless network;

express determination of allocation of channels in the wireless network as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem, which is the ILP problem; and

execute the QUBO problem on a quantum computing device to determine the allocation of channels in the wireless network.

17 . The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the memory contains instructions executable by the processor such that the apparatus is operable to allocate channels in the wireless network according to a result of executing the QUBO problem on the quantum computing device.