A Disentangled Representation Learning Framework for Low-altitude Network Coverage Prediction

--The expansion of the low-altitude economy has underscored the significance of Low-Altitude Network Coverage (LANC) prediction for designing aerial corridors. While accurate LANC forecasting hinges on the antenna beam patterns of Base Stations (BSs), these patterns are typically proprietary and not readily accessible. Operational parameters of BSs, which inherently contain beam information, offer an opportunity for data-driven low-altitude coverage prediction. However, collecting extensive low-altitude road test data is cost-prohibitive, often yielding only sparse samples per BS. This scarcity results in two primary challenges: imbalanced feature sampling due to limited variability in high-dimensional operational parameters against the backdrop of substantial changes in low-dimensional sampling locations, and diminished generalizability stemming from insufficient data samples. T o overcome these obstacles, we introduce a dual strategy comprising expert knowledge-based feature compression and disentangled representation learning. The former reduces feature space complexity by leveraging communications expertise, while the latter enhances model gen-eralizability through the integration of propagation models and distinct subnetworks that capture and aggregate the semantic representations of latent features. Experimental evaluation confirms the efficacy of our framework, yielding a 7% reduction in error compared to the best baseline algorithm. Real-network validations further attest to its reliability, achieving practical prediction accuracy with MAE errors at the 5 dB level. Xiaojie Li is with the National Mobile Communication Research Laboratory, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China, also with the College of Physics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China, and also with the Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data, The Chinese University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen, Guangdong 518172, China (e-mail: xiaojieli@nuaa.edu.cn).