In the context of a natural disaster, terrestrial communication infrastructures can be affected. In these situations, communication and coordination are essential for recognizing the extent of the disaster and for organizing the rescue of people and the recovery of basic services for the affected population. Communications with non-terrestrial networks are resilient to this type of phenomena and can be crucial in the response of emergency teams to these catastrophes. Coordination and rescue teams can connect to the terrestrial network when it is available, as it provides higher performance than the non-terrestrial network based on GEO satellites. However, when the connection to the terrestrial network is disrupted within the area affected by the natural disaster, rescue teams must connect to the NTN network to continue using the services required. These location, coordination and basic internet access services are services that require mobility continuity
Joint use case between Gradiant and i2CAT
The technical infrastructure is a federated testbed between Gradiant and i2CAT through the IRIS network. In one of the centers is the terrestrial network testbed and in the other center is the non-terrestrial network testbed. These testbeds consist of a User Equipment (UE) and a gNB as RAN and a core network (CN) shared between the two centers, deployed in the terrestrial testbed. The user application requiring mobility continuity can be tested with this set-up, using the terrestrial network and the non-terrestrial network to reach the server where the other part of the application is deployed.
Mobility services user story
The user story of the demonstration will consist of a rescue vehicle that must access a natural disaster emergency area. Within the affected area, there are areas where the terrestrial infrastructure has been compromised and therefore there is no terrestrial network connectivity. The vehicle requires basic but constant access to the network to report its position, check for updates from other rescue teams and be in constant communication with the control center to coordinate and update its status (if it has found survivors, if it needs any support, etc.). In order to achieve this continuity of mobility services, the vehicle will be connected to the terrestrial network testbed where there is terrestrial coverage and to the non-terrestrial network testbed as soon as the terrestrial connection is lost. This will ensure that the vehicle will have permanent connectivity to guarantee rescue services.
1. Land coverage in unaffected area
2. Land coverage in affected area
3. Terrestrial and non-terrestrial coverage in affected area
