<p>Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become a flexible alternative for providing temporary communication support in scenarios where fixed infrastructure may be overloaded or unavailable. This paper investigates UAV-based auxiliary networks for large-scale events, where sudden user density spikes can degrade the performance of conventional cellular systems. A key challenge in this context is maintaining stable UAV-user associations under high user density and limited UAV resources. Building on our previous Received Signal Strength Indicator-driven Association Policy (RDAP), this work introduces the Enhanced RDAP (e-RDAP), a multi-criteria association policy that combines RSSI, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), and communication delay with an adaptive deployment strategy. The proposed policy is evaluated using Network Simulator 3 (NS-3) under static and dynamic mobility scenarios, including realistic human mobility patterns. Results show that e-RDAP improves the reliability-efficiency trade-off compared with RDAP. In the highest-density dynamic scenario, e-RDAP achieves a <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$3.8\%$</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <mrow> <mn>3.8</mn> <mo>%</mo> </mrow> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation> improvement in PDR and an <InlineEquation ID="IEq2"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$11.8\%$</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <mrow> <mn>11.8</mn> <mo>%</mo> </mrow> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation> reduction in latency compared with RDAP. It also reduces reassociations by <InlineEquation ID="IEq3"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$17.3\%$</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <mrow> <mn>17.3</mn> <mo>%</mo> </mrow> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation> and controls overhead by <InlineEquation ID="IEq4"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$27\%$</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <mrow> <mn>27</mn> <mo>%</mo> </mrow> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation> compared with RDAP. Compared with the UAV-specific MULB-LA benchmark, e-RDAP also provides higher PDR, lower delay, fewer reassociations, and lower signaling overhead, indicating that QoS-aware multi-criteria association provides additional gains beyond load-aware association alone.</p>

A multi-criteria association policy for scalable auxiliary drone networks in large-scale events

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2026年7月8日

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Lucas Baptista de Moraes,
Natalia Fernandes,
Fernanda G. O. Passos,
Dianne Medeiros

摘要

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become a flexible alternative for providing temporary communication support in scenarios where fixed infrastructure may be overloaded or unavailable. This paper investigates UAV-based auxiliary networks for large-scale events, where sudden user density spikes can degrade the performance of conventional cellular systems. A key challenge in this context is maintaining stable UAV-user associations under high user density and limited UAV resources. Building on our previous Received Signal Strength Indicator-driven Association Policy (RDAP), this work introduces the Enhanced RDAP (e-RDAP), a multi-criteria association policy that combines RSSI, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), and communication delay with an adaptive deployment strategy. The proposed policy is evaluated using Network Simulator 3 (NS-3) under static and dynamic mobility scenarios, including realistic human mobility patterns. Results show that e-RDAP improves the reliability-efficiency trade-off compared with RDAP. In the highest-density dynamic scenario, e-RDAP achieves a $3.8\%$ $3.8 %$ improvement in PDR and an $11.8\%$ $11.8 %$ reduction in latency compared with RDAP. It also reduces reassociations by $17.3\%$ $17.3 %$ and controls overhead by $27\%$ $27 %$ compared with RDAP. Compared with the UAV-specific MULB-LA benchmark, e-RDAP also provides higher PDR, lower delay, fewer reassociations, and lower signaling overhead, indicating that QoS-aware multi-criteria association provides additional gains beyond load-aware association alone.