Design and Deployment of Drone-Assisted Cellular Networks

This paper addresses the challenges of locating survivors and delivering health services in critical areas where regular communication systems are unavailable due to natural disasters or the lack of a conventional terrestrial network. In these situations, drones can be employed to establish a temporary network that efficiently covers large areas. Their ability to adapt to various signal environments makes them versatile tools for real-time response. We propose a new approach that utilizes drones to identify the locations of users and provide cellular coverage along with other emergency assistance. This method estimates the location of affected users based on received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements from users’ devices. Subsequently, we establish a drone-assisted cellular network that connects to the nearest functioning terrestrial base station, using the minimum number of drones necessary to cover all affected users and deliver their required data rates. Our simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system in accurately locating users. It achieves more than a 45% reduction in the displacement of drones when searching for affected users, compared to the traditional "Sweep & Search" technique [1]. Additionally, a minimal number of drones are deployed to establish a UAV-assisted cellular network for emergency communications.