Optimal Location for a Mobile Base Station in a Complex Network

The focus of this work is the development of a complete network architecture to enhance telemetry performance using a mobile base station (MBS). Existing telemetry standards employ a radio frequency (RF) link standard, which allows only unidirectional data transfer from a test article (TA) to a ground station over a dedicated channel per TA. This limits the capacity of the system, as resources are not efficiently utilized. Additionally, this standard does not allow data exchange between over the horizon test articles. The present study proposes a means of enabling both the mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) and a cellular network to operate simultaneously within the same spectrum (i.e., yielding to a functional mixed network). This work has focused on providing solutions for two critical needs identified by the Central Test and Evaluation Investment Program (CTEIP). They are: “the need to be able to provide reliable coverage in potentially high capacity environments, even in Over-The-Horizon (OTH) settings” (Cellular Network), and “the need to make more efficient use of spectrum resources through dynamic sharing of said resources, based on instantaneous demand thereof” (Ad hoc Network).This work is an extension of earlier research on efficient spectrum management in telemetry links. In this paper the application of a modified k-means clustering to organize several hundred TAs in a complex network environment is presented. A mobile base station is added to the network to locate the congested area and support the network but positioning itself in the mixed network environment. The clustering scheme is implemented to minimize the cross talk and delay with assigning each TA to either a cellular or ad-hoc network. A scenario with two base stations (one mobile and one stationary) is simulated and results are presented. It is observed that use of an additional mobile base station could greatly increase the quality of communication by providing uniform distribution of node traffic and interference across the clusters in a complex telemetry environment with several hundred TAs.