  We consider multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at a common altitude
serving as data collectors to a network of IoT devices. First, using a
probabilistic line of sight channel model, the optimal assignment of IoT
devices to the UAVs is determined. Next, for the asymptotic regimes of a large
number of UAVs and/or large UAV altitudes, we propose closed-form analytical
expressions for the optimal data rate and characterize the corresponding
optimal UAV deployments. We also propose a simple iterative algorithm to find
the optimal deployments with a small number of UAVs at high altitudes. Globally
optimal numerical solutions to the general rate maximization problem are found
using particle swarm optimization.
