UAV-to-UAV Communication Scheme for Enabling Emergency Services During Network Failure

In this paper, a communication scheme is proposed to enable emergency services during extraordinary circumstances by allowing first responders to connect with mobile users when the cellular network fails to provide radio coverage. The proposed scheme is based on the device-to-device (D2D) communication where devices can communicate directly without involving the cellular network. In particular, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) communicate in a D2D manner to form a grid of relays that provide radio access for affected users. The work aims to minimize the total delay of the multi-hop UAV-to-UAV communication path from the requesting user which is covered by one UAV to the emergency service provider that is covered by another UAV. Here, since each UAV is providing radio access to a number of mobile users, each UAV is modeled as an M/M/1 queueing system where the response time of the UAV is considered the cost of the path to that UAV. The problem of finding the minimum response time is then solved using the Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm. Results show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in reducing the time required to establish the multi-hop path from the mobile user to the emergency service provider.