Relaying of 4G Signal over 5G Suitable for Disaster Management following 3GPP Release 18 Standard

• Jayanta Kumar Ray,
• Ardhendu Shekhar Biswas,
• Arpita Sarkar,
• Rabindranath Bera,
• Sanjib Sil,
• Monojit Mitra,

Vol. 17, No. 2, February 28, 2023
10.3837/tiis.2023.02.005, Download Paper (Free):

• VMR
• MCPTT
• THOR
• SWIPT
• CPE

Abstract

Technologies for disaster management are highly sought areas for research and commercial deployment. Landslides, Flood, cyclones, earthquakes, forest fires and road/train accidents are some causes of disasters. Capturing video and accessing data in real time from the disaster site can help first responders make split second decisions which may save human lives and valuable resource destructions. In this context the communication technologies performing the task should have high bandwidth and low latency which only 5G can deliver. But unfortunately in India, deployment of the 5G mobile communication systems is yet to give a shape and again in remote areas unavailability of 4G signals is still severe. In this situation the authors have proposed, simulated and experimented a 4G-5G communication scheme where from the disaster site the signals will be transmitted by a 5G terminal to a nearby 4G-5G gateway installed in a mobile vehicle. The received 5G signal will be further relayed by the 4G-5G gateway to the fixed 4G base station for onward transmission towards the disaster management station for decision making, deployment and relief monitoring. The 4G-5G gateway acts as a relay and converter of 5G signal to 4G signal and vice versa. This relayed system can be further mounted on a vehicle mounted relay (VMR) as proposed by 3GPP in Release 18. The scheme is also in the same line of context with Verizon’s, “Tactical Humanitarian Operations Response” (THOR) vehicle concept. The performance of the link is studied in different channel conditions, the throughput achieved is superb. The authors have implemented the above mentioned system towards smart campus networking and monitoring landslides activities which are common in their regions.

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