A Simplified Mobile Ad Hoc Network Structure for Helicopter Communication

There are a number of volunteer and statutory organizations who are capable of conducting an emergency response using helicopters. Rescue operations require a rapidly deployable high bandwidth network to coordinate necessary relief efforts between rescue teams on the ground and helicopters. Due to massive destruction and loss of services, ordinary communication infrastructures may collapse in these situations. Consequently, information exchange becomes one of the major challenges in these circumstances. Helicopters can be also employed for providing many services in rugged environments, military applications, and aerial photography. Ad hoc network can be used to provide alternative communication link between a set of helicopters, particularly in case of significant amount of data required to be shared. This paper addresses the ability of using ad hoc networks to support the communication between a set of helicopters. A simplified network structure model is presented and extensively discussed. Furthermore, a streamlined routing algorithm is proposed. Comprehensive simulations are conducted to evaluate the proposed routing algorithm.