Clustering approach for aerial base-station access with terrestrial cooperation

Abstract

In this paper we propose a clustering mechanism for improved energy efficiency in aerial based access systems suitable for disaster recovery scenarios and large scale public events. The aerial base station is a low altitude platform (LAP) station that provides access to several terrestrial nodes on the ground over a prescribed coverage area. The terrestrial nodes are battery operated power constrained terminals that have got no base station access except for the LAP. Since the aerial uplink is a high cost energy link we propose a cluster based approach for LAP access. The proposed clustering mechanism is simulated and is compared with the well known clustering technique HEED for energy effic..