Enabling 5G on the Ocean: A Hybrid Satellite-UAV-Terrestrial Network Solution

TL;DR

This paper explores integrating UAVs with satellite and terrestrial networks to enhance 5G maritime coverage, addressing deployment challenges and interference issues in oceanic environments.

Contribution

It proposes a hybrid satellite-UAV-terrestrial network model for maritime 5G, analyzing its potential benefits and practical challenges.

Findings

UAVs can effectively supplement satellite and terrestrial networks for maritime coverage.

Scheduling UAVs is easier due to vessel movement along sea lanes.

Interference management is crucial in hybrid maritime networks.

Abstract

Current fifth generation (5G) cellular networks mainly focus on the terrestrial scenario. Due to the difficulty of deploying communications infrastructure on the ocean, the performance of existing maritime communication networks (MCNs) is far behind 5G. This problem can be solved by using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as agile aerial platforms to enable on-demand maritime coverage, as a supplement to marine satellites and shore-based terrestrial based stations (TBSs). In this paper, we study the integration of UAVs with existing MCNs, and investigate the potential gains of hybrid satellite-UAV-terrestrial networks for maritime coverage. Unlike the terrestrial scenario, vessels on the ocean keep to sea lanes and are sparsely distributed. This provides new opportunities to ease the scheduling of UAVs. Also, new challenges arise due to the more complicated maritime prorogation environment, as well as the mutual interference between UAVs and existing satellites/TBSs. We discuss these issues and show possible solutions considering practical constraints.