EE-CAN: Energy efficient clustering in aerial networks

Aerial networks based on Low Altitude Platforms (LAP) provides an excellent method to rapidly deploy flexible communications infrastructure during large-scale emergency and public events. In such situations, it is of utmost importance to extend the lifetime of the battery operated hand-held devices serving on the ground. In this paper, we propose a novel clustering technique to improve the energy efficiency of the terrestrial nodes served by the aerial base-station under uncertain channel conditions on the ground. The proposed technique is analysed by means of simulations and the results are compared with well-known clustering algorithms. The results show that the proposed clustering mechanism significantly improves the energy efficiency of the terrestrial nodes under certain conditions.