Capacity evaluation of Aerial LTE base-stations for public safety communications

TLDR

Aerial‑terrestrial networks offer rapidly deployable broadband for public safety, especially when terrestrial infrastructure is damaged by disasters. This study evaluates the coverage and capacity of aerial UMTS LTE base stations for temporary large‑area broadband in disaster zones. The authors model the network using LTE 3GPP specifications, realistic channel models, and standard schedulers to assess performance. Results indicate that temperature, bandwidth, and scheduling discipline significantly influence capacity, while coverage varies across public safety scenarios.

Abstract

Aerial-Terrestrial communication networks able to provide rapidly-deployable and resilient communications capable of offering broadband connectivity are emerging as a suitable solution for public safety scenarios. During natural disasters or unexpected events, terrestrial infrastructure can be seriously damaged or disrupted due to physical destruction of network components, disruption in subsystem interconnections and/or network congestion. In this context, Aerial-Terrestrial communication networks are intended to provide temporal large coverage with the provision of broadband services at the disaster area. This paper studies the performance of Aerial UMTS Long Term Evolution (LTE) base stations in terms of coverage and capacity. Network model relies on appropriate channel model, LTE 3GPP specifications and well known schedulers are used. The results show the effect of the temperature, bandwidth, and scheduling discipline on the system capacity while at the same time coverage is investigated in different public safety scenarios.