Performance Evaluation of Direct-Link Backhaul for UAV-Aided Emergency Networks

Today’s wireless networks provide us reliable connectivity. However, if a disaster occurs, the whole network could be out of service and people cannot communicate. Using a fast deployable temporally network by mounting small cell base stations on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could solve the probl...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Castellanos, German, Deruyck, Margot, Martens, Luc, Joseph, Wout
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:Colombia
Institución:Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería Julio Garavito
Repositorio:Repositorio Institucional ECI
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.escuelaing.edu.co:001/1427
Acceso en línea:https://repositorio.escuelaing.edu.co/handle/001/1427
https://doi.org/10.3390/s19153342
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Sistemas de comunicación inalámbrica
Redes de sensores inalámbricos
Wireless communication systems
Wireless sensor networks
UABS
Backhaul
UAV
Disaster scenarios
Millimeter wave
Descripción
Sumario:Today’s wireless networks provide us reliable connectivity. However, if a disaster occurs, the whole network could be out of service and people cannot communicate. Using a fast deployable temporally network by mounting small cell base stations on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could solve the problem. Yet, this raises several challenges. We propose a capacity-deployment tool to design the backhaul network for UAV-aided networks and to evaluate the performance of the backhaul network in a realistic scenario in the city center of Ghent, Belgium. This tool assigns simultaneously resources to the ground users—access network—and to the backhaul network, taking into consideration backhaul capacity and power restrictions. We compare three types of backhaul scenarios using a 3.5 GHz link, 3.5 GHz with carrier aggregation (CA) and the 60 GHz band, considering three different types of drones. The results showed that an optimal UAV flight height (80 m) could satisfy both access and backhaul networks; however, full coverage was difficult to achieve. Finally, we discuss the influence of the flight height and the number of requesting users concerning the network performance and propose an optimal configuration and new mechanisms to improve the network capacity, based on realistic restrictions.