Drone-Aided Communication as a Key Enabler for 5G and Resilient Public Safety Networks

Abstract

Wireless networks comprising unmanned aerial vehicles can offer limited connectivity in a cost-effective manner to disaster-struck regions where terrestrial infrastructure might have been damaged. While these drones offer advantages such as rapid deployment to far-flung areas, their operations may be rendered ineffective by the absence of an adequate energy management strategy. This article considers the multi-faceted applications of these platforms and the challenges thereof, in the networks of the future. In addition to providing an overview of the work done by researchers in determining the features of the air-toground channel, the article explores the use of drones in fields as diverse as military surveillance and network-rehabilitation for disaster-struck areas. It also goes on to present a case-study which envisages a scenario in which drones operate alongside conventional wireless infrastructure, thereby allowing a greater number of users to establish a line-of-sight link for communication. This study investigates a power allocation strategy for the microwave base station and the small base stations operating at 28 GHz frequency band. The self-adaptive power control strategy for drones is dependent on the maximum allowable interference threshold and minimum data rate requirements. This study highlights the importance of incorporating the drones in the multi-tier heterogeneous network to extend the network coverage and capacity.

Unmanned aerial vehicle for internet of everything: Opportunities and challenges

“…For the areas with weak-connection, we list four typical regions that are construction sites in urban, disaster regions in urban, blind coverage spots in the city, and the transportation road. In these areas, some recent studies use UAVs to offer an extended network coverage and perform some specified applications such Areas with weak-connection Urban construction sites Construction project management [119]- [121] Indoor construction monitoring [122], [123] Disaster regions Disaster surveillance [80], [124], [125] Emergency networks construction [126]- [129] Urban coverage blind spots Enhanced coverage in urban area [29], [80], [130]- [133] Patrolling and surveillance [134]- [139] Transportation systems Intelligent transportation systems [140]- [143] Connection between ground vehicles [144]- [147] Areas without network deployment Farms Survey of UAV in agriculture [63], [148] Imagery analysis of crops [149]- [153] Deserts Disaster monitoring [154]- [156] Geomorphological analysis [61], [155], [157] Military detection [158] Forests Trees and plants monitoring [159]- [162] Forest growing volume prediction [163], [164] Oceans Coastal environment analysis [165]- [168] Ocean environment monitoring [169]- [171] Marine science and observation [18]...…”

Resilience of airborne networks

“…Most of the existing work [1], [4] consider battery powered UAVs as the LAPs. This means that the UAVs have a limited operation time and need to fly to charging stations imposing a (predictable) disruption to the network.…”

On-Demand Ultra-Dense Cloud Drone Networks: Opportunities, Challenges and Benefits

“…Drones, earlier developed for military applications such as surveillance and reconnaissance, are now being actively implemented for many civil applications and recently in 5G [3]. We argue that this is a timely and an efficient replacement for UDN in terms of on-demand deployment, energy efficiency, cost reduction and simpler network architecture with cloud-based and edge-based processing.…”