On the performance of aerial LTE base-stations for public safety and emergency recovery

Recent events have shown that in the aftermath of an unexpected incident, communication infrastructures play an important role in supporting critical services. Airborne communication networks have been recently studied for the provision of wireless communication services and it is a promising candidate for rapidly deployable and resilient emergency networks. However, the choice of communication technologies from Aerial platforms is a challenging issue and depends on a variety of factors including platform payload capacity, coverage and capacity requirements, to name a few. In this paper, we investigate the performance of 4G LTE-WiFi multimode base stations deployed on airborne platforms which provides coverage for first responders during emergencies. We present an adapted simulation model for the analysis of hybrid aerial-terrestrial systems and study the impact of platform elevation and mobility on the cell coverage and channel capacity. Performance analysis with a platform deployment of a single Aerial Base Station (eNodeB) corroborates that airborne units with 4G communication capabilities are very promising candidates for robust communication links during emergency relief operations.