Performance optimization of tethered balloon technology for public safety and emergency communications

• DOI: 10.1007/s11235-019-00580-w
• Publication Date: 2019-05-28T07:26:29Z
• Authors: S. H. Alsamhi; F. A. Almalki; Ou Ma; M. S. Ansari; M. C. Angelides
• Keywords: WiMAX; disaster recovery; tethered balloon; 02 engineering and technology; 7. Clean energy; public safety networks; 004; public safety network; hazardous; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; emergency services; OPNET

This paper investigates the potential of a tethered balloon network architecture deployed as part of public safety networks and emergency communications. Tethered balloon technology has been evolving as a powerful and promising technology for improving public safety and for saving people’s lives. As such, it enables accomplishment of unique and specific missions for temporary events such as natural hazardous or terrorist acts. Such acts raise significantly the potential to disrupt the entire terrestrial wireless communication infrastructure. To mitigate the effects of such catastrophic events, we propose tethered balloon technology for delivering broadband services in an area over which the communication infrastructure has been entirely or partially destroyed. The results reveal a significantly high performance in providing broadband communication services with provision of Quality of Service. This suggests that the work of rescue and relief teams can be significantly enhanced.