Extending satellite service availability through energy efficient cooperation

In this paper, we address the design of a cooperative protocol for a hybrid satellite/terrestrial emergency system. We want to perform energy savings compared to the case where all the terrestrial relay nodes are forwarding satellite messages to ground receivers. This is done via the selection of relevant relay nodes. The parameterization of the protocol phases has been done through simulations and takes into account the duration of the selection process, the number of selected nodes, and the signaling overhead. The selection process based on a node identifier (ID) appears to provide greater energy savings compared to the selection process based on the signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR). The solutions have been implemented in the real case scenario of forest fire that has been thoroughly documented by the US administration. According to the scenario parameters, 100% of the masked nodes are reached after cooperation.