Spatial Configuration of Agile Wireless Networks with Drone-BSs and User-in-the-loop

Abstract

Agile networking can reduce over-engineering, costs, and energy waste. Towards that end, it is vital to exploit all degrees of freedom of wireless networks efficiently, so that service quality is not sacrificed. In order to reap the benefits of flexible networking, we propose a spatial network configuration scheme (SNC), which can result in efficient networking; both from the perspective of network capacity, and profitability. First, SNC utilizes the drone-base-stations (drone-BSs) to configure access points. Drone-BSs are shifting paradigms of heterogeneous wireless networks by providing radically flexible deployment opportunities. On the other hand, their limited endurance and potential high cost increase the importance of utilizing drone-BSs efficiently. Therefore, secondly, user mobility is exploited via user-in-the-loop (UIL), which aims at influencing users' mobility by offering incentives. The proposed uncoordinated SNC is a computationally efficient method, yet, it may be insufficient to exploit the synergy between drone-BSs and UIL. Hence, we propose joint SNC, which increases the performance gain along with the computational cost. Finally, semi-joint SNC combines benefits of joint SNC, with computational efficiency. Numerical results show that semi-joint SNC is two orders of magnitude times faster than joint SNC, and more than 15 percent profit can be obtained compared to conventional systems.