Beam-Aware UAV Association for Aerial Highways in NTN-Enabled 5G Networks

Abstract

Reliable communication for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in beyond-5G and 6G cellular networks is challenged by strong line-of-sight interference, limited spatial separability, and inefficient association when UAVs operate along structured aerial highways (AHs). This paper presents a joint UAV association and beam management framework for heterogeneous terrestrial–aerial networks assisted by high-altitude platform stations (HAPS). The approach exploits the spatial structure of AHs through particle swarm optimization (PSO)-based segmentation, enabling consistent segment-level UAV association across network tiers. A tier-aware association metric is combined with an enhanced teaching–learning-based optimization (ETLBO) scheme to jointly optimize synchronization signal block (SSB) beam activation and power allocation. This coordinated design mitigates inter-sector interference and improves beam alignment for aerial users while preserving the performance of ground users. Simulation results based on 3GPP-compliant models demonstrate notable gains in UAV SINR and achievable data rate, particularly at the lower percentiles, with limited impact on terrestrial users. The framework further exhibits robust performance across different AH geometries, confirming its effectiveness in interference-and coverage-limited aerial communication scenarios.