Movable Base Stations in Mobile Networks for Emergency Communications

An emergency communication system is necessary for first responders, who need to enter areas with no network coverage or damaged network infrastructure due to natural or man-made disasters to perform emergency tasks. The first responders usually rely on fixed base stations deployed according to the needs of the mission, to meet the communication needs. However, fixed base stations can pose several limitations, typically for supporting the mobility of groups of users. Thanks to the development of software defined radio and software defined networks, embedding the functions of a base station on a movable platform, such as a vehicle or a drone, is now a possible alternative. The base station carried by the movable platform can react to changes in the network in real time, allowing more flexibility and introducing a new degree of freedom for the emergency communication network. In this work, we present a quantitative network performance comparison between a fixed base station and a movable base station, when a group of first responders is moving in a geographical area for an emergency rescue mission. We show that a movable base station provides up to 4 times the throughput of a fixed base station.