Dr Sidrah Javed

and 1 more

In emergency scenarios with incapacitated (compromised/absent) fixed communication infrastructure, ensuring reliable on-demand and dynamic network coverage becomes critical for rapid and effective disaster management. This paper proposes a novel framework for deploying network-in-a-box (NIB) solution using a hybrid model that integrates groundbased NIBs for accessible areas with airborne NIBs for areas with restricted ground access. The proposed approach leverages the portability, compactness, plug-and-play characteristics of NIBs, flexibility/mobility of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based NIBs, and reliability/stability of ground-based NIBs to establish a temporary yet scalable, adaptive, and dynamic communication network. We adopt priority-based NOMA (PB-NOMA) for multiuser multi-antenna downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) communications between NIBs and single-antenna ground users. We further employ simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) for priority users (PUs) to replenish their equipment batteries for continued operation while transferring wireless information to general users (GUs). Our proposed approach addresses the key challenges such as terrain-aware rapid deployment, dynamic resource allocation, complete/partial power outages, and seamless connectivity with the aim to maximize generalized global energy efficiency (GGEE). Our analysis, optimization framework, and simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the adopted system to provide robust ondemand critical communications while dynamically adapting to user traffic demands, environmental constraints, and emergency scenarios.