Global IoT Coverage Through Aerial And Satellite Network

Abstract: Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Type Communication (MTC) have got more momentum in the last few years but still, need to be penetrated with their full swing in our daily life. This can be possible with general framework that provides global network coverage. Non-terrestrial networks comprised of satellites and aerial platforms are expected to provide next-generation communication services in underserved and un-served areas by ensuring the quality of service that cannot be covered by existing terrestrial networks owing to economical and geographical limitations. The aim of this thesis is to formulate a set of massive and critical MTC use cases such as global environment monitoring, tracking of shipping containers and smart agriculture, and assess their comprehensive requirements like data size, sensor node density and uplink capacity and discuss possible network architectures and deployments focusing on satellite or aerial networks. A rigorous discussion on different network architectures to address the requirements have been presented, that involve (1) Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite based network, (2) High Altitude Platform (HAP) based network, and (3) HAP and UAV based network. The proposed network architectures have been simulated and analyzed using MATLAB tools for respective use cases in terms of required number of satellites or aerial platforms. The criteria for selection of network architectures for the use cases are based on the minimum number of satellites or aerial platforms. The results show that LEO constellation consisting of 260 satellites are feasible concerning deployment and management for global environment monitoring network. Similarly, 1440 LEO satellites provide global coverage for tracking of shipping containers. Smart agriculture use case requires high throughput, and hence HAP and UAV integrated network architecture is more realistic for a fully autonomous system as compared to other network architectures. Cooperative control and management of set of agricultural machines can be performed at the UAV. Simulation results show that single UAV can be capable of commanding and controlling the agricultural smart machines in one square kilometer crop field and can send the summary of events to the central station via a HAP.