Aerial-terrestrial communications: terrestrial cooperation and energy-efficient transmissions to aerial base stations

Hybrid aerial-terrestrial communication networks based on low-altitude platforms are expected to meet optimally the urgent communication needs of emergency relief and recovery operations for tackling large-scale natural disasters. The energy-efficient operation of such networks is important given th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 2715 - 2735
Main Authors Kandeepan, Sithamparanathan, Gomez, Karina, Reynaud, Laurent, Rasheed, Tinku
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 01.10.2014
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Adaptation models
Base stations
Communication
Communication networks
Energy efficiency
Energy policy
Relays
Satellite broadcasting
Satellites
Uplink
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Summary:Hybrid aerial-terrestrial communication networks based on low-altitude platforms are expected to meet optimally the urgent communication needs of emergency relief and recovery operations for tackling large-scale natural disasters. The energy-efficient operation of such networks is important given that the entire network infrastructure, including the battery-operated ground terminals, exhibits requirements to operate under power-constrained situations. In this paper, we discuss the design and evaluation of an adaptive cooperative scheme intended to extend the survivability of the battery-operated aerial-terrestrial communication links. We propose and evaluate a real-time adaptive cooperative transmission strategy for dynamic selection between direct and cooperative links based on the channel conditions for improved energy efficiency. We show that the cooperation between mobile terrestrial terminals on the ground could improve energy efficiency in the uplink, depending on the temporal behavior of the terrestrial and aerial uplink channels. The corresponding delay in having cooperative (relay-based) communications with relay selection is also addressed. The simulation analysis corroborates that the adaptive transmission technique improves overall energy efficiency of the network whilst maintaining low latency, enabling real-time applications.
ISSN:0018-9251
1557-9603
DOI:10.1109/TAES.2014.130012