Hybrid satellite-UAV-terrestrial maritime networks: Network selection for users on a vessel optimized with transmit power and UAV position

The hybrid satellite-UAV-terrestrial maritime networks have shown great promise for broadband coverage at sea. The existing works focused on vessels collaboratively served by UAV-enabled aerial base station (ABSs) and terrestrial base stations (TBSs) deployed along the coast, and proved that data rate could be improved by optimizing transmit power and ABS's position. In practice, users on a vessel can be collaboratively served by an ABS and a vessel-enabled base station (VBS) in different networks. In this case, how to select the network for users on a vessel is still an open issue. In this paper, a TBS and a satellite respectively provide wireless backhaul for the ABS and the VBS. The network selection is jointly optimized with transmit power of ABS and VBS, and ABS's position for improving data rate of all users. We solve it by finding candidates for network selection and iteratively solving transmit power and ABS's position for each candidate. Simulation results demonstrate that data rate can be improved by collaborative coverage for users on a vessel.