Bandwidth allocation of contingency cellular network

When stricken by a large-scale disaster, the efficiency of disaster response operation is very critical to life saving. We propose to build a contingency cellular network (CCN) to support emergency communication in large scale natural disasters by connecting disconnected base stations. This research addresses the bandwidth allocation problem. The advance of mobile communication technologies has brought great convenience to users. Cellular phone becomes the first communication tool most people would use in emergency. However, cellular networks were usually crashed in earthquake, typhoons or other natural disasters due to power outage or backhaul breakage. Unfortunately, the efficiency of communication system is a critical factor to the success of disaster response operation such as resource allocation as well as coordination of rescue and relief operations. We designed a contingency cellular network (CCN) by connecting physically intact but service-disrupted base stations together with wireless links. As the bandwidth resource in CCN is limited, a smart bandwidth allocation to facilitate prioritized bandwidth sharing will maximize the contribution of CCN to the disaster response operation. We model the CCN Bandwidth Allocation Problem into a Nested 0–1 Knapsack Problem aiming to maximize disaster response operation efficiency. The problem is proven to be NP Hard. We also design an efficient heuristic algorithm to solve the problem when it is needed in urgent.