Two-layer intelligent deployment of capsule airports and unmanned aerial vehicles for providing emergency communication services

Abstract

The utilization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as base stations for emergency communication services has garnered significant attention due to their lightness and agility. To increase the capacity and coverage of UAVs, the Capsule Airport (CA) is developed, which serves as a recharging and retrieval station for UAVs. Meanwhile, deploying CAs and UAVs in appropriate positions is crucial for ensuring high-quality and efficient service provision. To address this challenge, we propose the Two-Layer Maximum Deployment Problem for Capsule Airports and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (2L-MCDP-C&U). The objective of the 2L-MCDP-C&U is to maximize the number of served users by determining the ground locations for opening a given number of CAs and deploying their UAVs in 3D space, while considering the connectivity of UAV-to-UAV, UAV-to-CA, and UAV-to-user. An improved variable neighborhood search algorithm is designed based on the k-means (VNS-K) to solve the 2L-MCDP-C&U. To further validate its efficacy, we conduct experiments on random instances of various sizes and a practical case study of Zhulin town in China. Our work paves the way for more efficient and effective emergency communication services using CAs and UAVs.