Minimum Cost Design of Cellular Networks in Rural Areas with UAVs, Optical Rings, Solar Panels and Batteries
Journal article, 2019

Bringing the cellular connectivity in rural zones is a big challenge, due to the large installation costs that are incurred when a legacy cellular network based on fixed Base Stations (BSs) is deployed. To tackle this aspect, we consider an alternative architecture composed of UAV-based BSs to provide cellular coverage, ground sites to connect the UAVs with the rest of the network, Solar Panels (SPs) and batteries to recharge the UAVs and to power the ground sites, and a ring of optical fiber links to connect the installed sites. We then target the minimization of the installation costs for the considered UAV-based cellular architecture, by taking into account the constraints of UAVs coverage, SPs energy consumption, levels of the batteries and the deployment of the optical ring. After providing the problem formulation, we derive an innovative methodology to ensure that a single ring of installed optical fibers is deployed. Moreover, we propose a new algorithm, called DIARIZE, to practically tackle the problem. Our results, obtained over a set of representative rural scenarios, show that DIARIZE performs very close to the optimal solution, and in general outperforms a reference design based on fixed BSs.

cellular networks

optimization

algorithms.

optical ring installation

UAV-based networks

renewable energy sources

CAPEX minimization

Author

Luca Chiaraviglio

Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT)

University of Rome Tor Vergata

Lavinia Amorosi

Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT)

Nicola Blefari-Melazzi

Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT)

University of Rome Tor Vergata

Paolo Dell'Olmo

Sapienza University of Rome

Antonio Lo Mastro

University of Rome Tor Vergata

Carlos Natalino Da Silva

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Paolo Monti

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking

24732400 (eISSN)

Vol. 3

Subject Categories

Computer Engineering

Telecommunications

Communication Systems

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

DOI

10.1109/TGCN.2019.2936012

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Latest update

7/17/2024