Wireless networks have become indispensable for modern life, connecting people through their mobile devices to each other, businesses, services, emergency alerts and more. Cell phone tower base stations form the physical backbone of this network. In many areas and scenarios, however, the strain on these stations is growing, with slow connections or outages leading to frustration at minimum or peril at worst.

To address these times when the existing system cannot meet bandwidth needs, researchers at Stevens are developing a novel drone-based solution.

“Wireless coverage has historically been from the ground, but we need a more flexible, more agile solution, and we can get that from moving to the air with drones,” says project leader Ying Wang, an assistant professor of systems engineering in the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science at Stevens.

Like a pop-up network or network-on-demand, a swarm of drones can be deployed to provide extra coverage, linking up with available towers, Wang notes. This ad-hoc approach can immediately enhance search-and-rescue efforts after infrastructure-wrecking natural disasters, for instance, or temporarily boost data capacity during major social events such as sports championships. Drone swarms could also extend coverage to little-served rural regions more economically than satellite-based options, as well as augment dense city centers where high costs and limited space hinder the installation of additional base stations.

The researchers have dubbed their project AURA-GreeN, for Aerial Utility-driven Route Adaptation for Green cooperative Networks. It involves developing software that enables each drone in a swarm to act as a miniature base station and actively integrate with its fellow drones in efficiently allocating available wireless spectrum, while also conserving power and adjusting as bandwidth demands fluctuate.

Critical to success is keeping the so-called age of information (AOI) low, meaning that the data remain fresh, moving quickly from point to point as close to real-time as possible. In a recent study in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, led by Wang’s Ph.D. student Ishan Aryendu, the Stevens researchers describe how their software — which can be implemented across various types of drones — at this point can effectively improve AOI performance about fivefold, from a rough baseline of 100 milliseconds to 20 milliseconds, all within conceivable power limits.

Wang and colleagues are continuing to hone their swarm solution in the lab with an eye toward conducting field work in the near future.

“We’re very excited about this project,” she says. “We see opportunities to bring wireless coverage to where it’s needed on short notice.”

– Adam Hadhazy