On-Demand HAPS-Assisted Communication System for Public Safety in Emergency and Disaster Response
Bilal Karaman, Ilhan Ba\c{s}t\"urk, Ferdi Kara, Engin Zeydan, Esra Aycan Beyaz{\i}t, Sezai Ta\c{s}k{\i}n, Emil Bj\"ornson, Halim Yanikomeroglu

TL;DR
This paper proposes a HAPS-assisted communication system to restore and enhance emergency connectivity during disasters, demonstrating through simulations that it significantly improves backhaul capacity and resilience in affected areas.
Contribution
It introduces a demand-driven HAPS-based emergency communication network integrating optical/THz links and spectrum bands, enhancing disaster response capabilities beyond existing solutions.
Findings
HAPS with hybrid optical/THz links boosts backhaul capacity and resilience.
HAPS-enabled RAN ensures reliable communication for first responders.
Simulation results confirm improved network robustness in harsh conditions.
Abstract
Natural disasters often disrupt communication networks and severely hamper emergency response and disaster management. Existing solutions, such as portable communication units and cloud-based network architectures, have improved disaster resilience but fall short if both the Radio Access Network (RAN) and backhaul infrastructure become inoperable. To address these challenges, we propose a demand-driven communication system supported by High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) to restore communication in an affected area and enable effective disaster relief. The proposed emergency response network is a promising solution as it provides a rapidly deployable, resilient communications infrastructure. The proposed HAPS-based communication can play a crucial role not only in ensuring connectivity for mobile users but also in restoring backhaul connections when terrestrial networks fail. As a…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
