Node Cardinality Estimation Using a Mobile Base Station in a Heterogeneous Wireless Network Deployed Over a Large Region

We consider the problem of estimation of the node cardinality of each node type in a heterogeneous wireless network with T types of nodes deployed over a large region, where $T\geq 2$ is an integer. A mobile base station (MBS), such as that mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), is used in such cases since a single static base station is not sufficient to cover such a large region. The MBS moves around in the region, and makes multiple stops, and at the last stop, it is able to estimate the node cardinalities for the entire region. In this paper, we propose two schemes, viz., HSRC-MI and HSRC-M2, to rapidly estimate the number of nodes of each type. Both the schemes have two phases and they are performed at each stop. We prove that the node cardinality estimates computed using our proposed schemes equal and hence are as accurate as the estimates that would have been obtained if a well known estimation protocol designed for homogeneous networks in prior work is separately executed T times. Using simulations, we show that the numbers of slots required by the proposed schemes, viz., HSRC-MI and HSRCM2, for computing the node cardinality estimates are significantly less than the number of slots required for T separate executions of the above estimation protocol for homogeneous networks.