Skip to main content
Log in

Performance optimization of tethered balloon technology for public safety and emergency communications

  • Published:
Telecommunication Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correction to this article was published on 02 July 2019

This article has been updated

Abstract

This paper investigates the potential of a tethered balloon network architecture deployed as part of public safety networks and emergency communications. Tethered balloon technology has been evolving as a powerful and promising technology for improving public safety and for saving people’s lives. As such, it enables accomplishment of unique and specific missions for temporary events such as natural hazardous or terrorist acts. Such acts raise significantly the potential to disrupt the entire terrestrial wireless communication infrastructure. To mitigate the effects of such catastrophic events, we propose tethered balloon technology for delivering broadband services in an area over which the communication infrastructure has been entirely or partially destroyed. The results reveal a significantly high performance in providing broadband communication services with provision of Quality of Service. This suggests that the work of rescue and relief teams can be significantly enhanced.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

  • 02 July 2019

    The original version of this article was published with an error in one of the co-author name and e-mail address.

References

  1. Bupe, P., Haddad, R., & Rios-Gutierrez, F. (2015). Relief and emergency communication network based on an autonomous decentralized UAV clustering network. In SoutheastCon 2015 (pp. 1–8).

  2. Noam, E. M. (2004). What the world trade center attack has shown us about our communications networks. In E. Bohlin, S. Levin, N. Sung, & C. Yoon (Eds.), Global economy and digital society (pp. 375–378). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Alsamhi, S. H., Samar Ansari, M., & Rajput, N. S. (2017). Disaster coverage predication for the emerging tethered balloon technology: Capability for preparedness, detection, mitigation, and response. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 12, 1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Lee, Y.-M., Ku, B.-J., & Ahn, D.-S. (2010). A satellite core network system for emergency management and disaster recovery. In 2010 International conference on information and communication technology convergence (ICTC) (pp. 549–552).

  5. Yoo, J. (2009). Performance Evaluation of Voice Over IP on WiMAX and Wi-Fi Based Networks. Communication Networks. http://www2.ensc.sfu.ca/~ljilja/ENSC427/Spring09/Projects/team1/ensc427-finalreport.pdf. Accessed 5 Nov 2018.

  6. Gomez, K., Hourani, A., Goratti, L., Riggio, R., Kandeepan, S., & Bucaille, I. (2015). Capacity evaluation of aerial LTE base-stations for public safety communications. In 2015 European conference on networks and communications (EuCNC) (pp. 133–138).

  7. Khaleefa, S., Alsamhi, S., & Rajput, N. (2014). Tethered balloon technology for telecommunication, coverage and path loss. In 2014 IEEE students’ conference on electrical, electronics and computer science (SCEECS) (pp. 1–4).

  8. Alsamhi, S. H., & Rajput, N. S. (2015). An intelligent HAP for broadband wireless communications: Developments, QoS and applications. International Journal of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, 3, 134–143.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Qiantori, A., Sutiono, A. B., Hariyanto, H., Suwa, H., & Ohta, T. (2012). An emergency medical communications system by low altitude platform at the early stages of a natural disaster in Indonesia. Journal of Medical Systems, 36, 41–52.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Khaleefa, S. A., Alsamhi, S. H., & Rajput, N. S. (2014). Tethered balloon technology for telecommunication, coverage and path loss. In 2014 IEEE students’ conference on electrical, electronics and computer science (SCEECS) (pp. 1–4).

  11. Wang, Y., Yin, C., & Sun, R. (2016). Hybrid satellite-aerial-terrestrial networks for public safety. In Personal satellite services. Next-generation satellite networking and communication systems: 6th international conference, PSATS 2014, Genoa, Italy, July 2829, 2014, revised selected papers (pp. 106–113).

  12. Tozer, T. C., & Grace, D. (2001). High-altitude platforms for wireless communications. Electronics & Communication Engineering Journal, 13, 127–137.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Grace, D., Mohorcic, M., Oodo, M., Capstick, M., Pallavicini, M. B., & Lalovic, M. (2005). CAPANINA—Communications from aerial platform networks delivering broadband information for all. In Proceedings of the 14th IST mobile and wireless and communications summit.

  14. Grace, D., Capstick, M. H., Mohorcic, M., Horwath, J., Pallavicini, M. B., & Fitch, M. (2005). Integrating users into the wider broadband network via high altitude platforms. IEEE Wireless Communications, 12, 98–105.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Deaton, J. D. (2008). High altitude platforms for disaster recovery: Capabilities, strategies, and techniques for emergency telecommunications. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, 2008, 1–8.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Valcarce, A., Rasheed, T., Gomez, K., Kandeepan, S., Reynaud, L., Hermenier, R. et al. (2013). Airborne base stations for emergency and temporary events. In International conference on personal satellite services (pp. 13–25).

  17. Ahmed, B. T., & Ramon, M. C. (2009). WiMAX in high altitude platforms (HAPs) communications over large cities. In 6th international multi-conference on systems, signals and devices, 2009 (pp. 1–4).

  18. Likitthanasate, P., Grace, D., & Mitchell, P. D. (2005). Coexistence performance of high altitude platform and terrestrial systems sharing a common downlink WiMAX frequency band. Electronics Letters, 41, 858–860.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Alsamhi, S. H., & Rajput, N. S. (2014). Neural network in a joint HAPS and terrestrial fixed broadband system. International Journal of Technological Exploration and Learning (IJTEL), 3, 344–348.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Alsamhi, S. H., & Rajput, N. S. (2015). An intelligent hand-off algorithm to enhance quality of service in high altitude platforms using neural network. Wireless Personal Communications, 82, 2059–2073.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Alsamhi, S. H., & Rajput, N. S. (2015). Implementation of call admission control technique in HAP for enhanced QoS in wireless network deployment. Telecommunication Systems, 63, 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Alsamhi, S. H., & Rajput, N. S. (2012). Methodology for mitigation of interferences from high altitude platform ground station to terrestrial stations. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research (IJSER), 3, 1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Bucaille, I., Hethuin, S., Rasheed, T., Munari, A., Hermenier, R., & Allsopp, S. (2013). Rapidly deployable network for tactical applications: Aerial base station with opportunistic links for unattended and temporary events absolute example. In MILCOM 2013-2013 IEEE military communications conference (pp. 1116–1120).

  24. Mase, K. (2011). How to deliver your message from/to a disaster area. IEEE Communications Magazine, 49, 52–57.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Disaster emergency communications is available in: http://www.fema.gov/disaster-emergency-communications.

  26. Mohammed, A., Arnon, S., Grace, D., Mondin, M., Miura, R. (2008). Advanced communication techniques and applications for high-altitude platforms. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, 2008, 1–3.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Alsamhi, S. H., & Rajput, N. S. (2016). An efficient channel reservation technique for improved QoS for mobile communication deployment using high altitude platform. Wireless Personal Communications, 91, 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Tauqeer, A., Shahid, Y., & Rasool, C. S. (2014). Link fault tolerable network topology for network services provision in disaster area. Research Journal of Recent Sciences, 3, 58–68.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Reynaud, L., Rasheed, T., & Kandeepan, S. (2011). An integrated aerial telecommunications network that supports emergency traffic. In 2011 14th international symposium on wireless personal multimedia communications (WPMC) (pp. 1–5).

  30. Emergency communications is available in: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/emergency-communications.

  31. Hariyanto, H., Santoso, H., & Widiawan, A. K. (2009). Emergency broadband access network using low altitude platform. In 2009 international conference on instrumentation, communications, information technology, and biomedical engineering (ICICI-BME) (pp. 1–6).

  32. Kassa, S. R., Barman, K., & Kosale, D. (2010). A most promising HAPs technology for next generation wireless communication systems. In Proceedings of the 4th national conference (pp. 1–6).

  33. Bilaye, P., Gawande, V. N., Desai, U. B., Raina, A. A., & Pant, R. S. (2008). Low cost wireless internet access for rural areas using tethered aerostats. In IEEE region 10 and the third international conference on industrial and information systems, 2008. ICIIS 2008 (pp. 1–5).

  34. Komerath, N. (2011). An imaging, communications and beamed power architecture for first responders. In Proceedings of the 1st international conference on wireless technologies for humanitarian relief (pp. 421–428).

  35. Alsamhi, S., Gapta, S. K., Rajput, N., & Saket, R. (2016). Network architectures exploiting multiple tethered balloon constellations for coverage extension. Presented at the 6th international conference on advances in engineering sciences and applied mathematics Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

  36. Favraud, R., Apostolaras, A., Nikaein, N., & Korakis, T. (2016). Public safety networks: Enabling mobility for critical communications. In ISTE (Ed.), Wireless public safety networks 2: A systematic approach. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Tanzi, T. J., & Isnard, J. (2015). Public safety network: An overview. In ISTE (Ed.), Wireless public safety networks 1 (pp. 1–20). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Chen, X., & Guo, D. (2016). public safety broadband network with rapid-deployment base stations. In ISTE (Ed.), Wireless public safety networks 2 (pp. 173–198). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. H. Alsamhi.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The original version of this article was revised: The co-author name “M. C. Angelides” and email address has been updated.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Alsamhi, S.H., Almalki, F.A., Ma, O. et al. Performance optimization of tethered balloon technology for public safety and emergency communications. Telecommun Syst 75, 235–244 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-019-00580-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-019-00580-w

Keywords

Navigation