Large device to device communication network including airborne drones for emergency scenarios

Abstract

In the case of emergency scenarios communication infrastructure might be destroyed, impairing communication abilities in the disaster area. In such situation device-to-device (D2D) communication networking plays an essential role to overcome the communication loss. To provide a reliable communication network, D2D devices are combined with airborne drones. The D2D devices provide a relay service while being able to transmit their own data. The airborne drones offer additional relay functionality and provide considerably reduced latency compared with D2D communication networks without any airborne drones. In this article, we will illustrate a large dynamic communication network (LDCN) and demonstrate its feasibility for even more than 64 000 D2D communication devices in the case of realistic channel conditions including path loss and fading. It will be shown that the illustrated LDCN is truly infrastructure-less, that is, no infrastructure or backbone or base station functionality need to be reinstalled. Therefore, the airborne drones do not take over any coordination services. The illustrated LDCN has a simple packet switching architecture and since all communication is localized it is robust and fully flexible. In addition, no specific radio interface or preferred multiple access scheme such as code division multiple access or time division multiple access are required.