KAUST research develops smarter HAPS deployment guidance for island and maritime connectivity
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Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have developed a mathematical framework to guide the deployment of high-altitude platform station networks across islands, coastlines and open maritime areas.
The team, including Hao Lin, Mustafa A. Kishk and Mohamed-Slim Alouini, examined how high-altitude platform stations, or HAPS, could support communications in regions where terrestrial networks are costly or difficult to build. HAPS are aircraft or balloons equipped with communications systems and typically operate 20 to 50 kilometers above Earth. Their wide coverage makes them attractive for remote islands, shipping routes, offshore facilities and maritime monitoring.
“Our broader aim is to use HAPS to connect wider maritime regions and bring reliable communications to people and devices in remote areas that terrestrial networks still cannot reach,” said Prof. Mohamed-Slim Alouini.
The study shows that the same HAPS network can affect users differently depending on their location. Onshore users may experience signal blockage from buildings, forests or terrain. Offshore users usually have clearer links to multiple platforms, which can strengthen the desired signal but also increase interference. Nearshore users experience a mixture of blocked and unobstructed links.
To capture these differences, the researchers developed separate models for onshore, nearshore and offshore users. They used stochastic geometry, a mathematical method for analyzing large networks with randomly distributed elements, to estimate the probability that users would receive a sufficiently strong downlink signal. The team also proposed two simplified methods for evaluating nearshore coverage with lower computational complexity.The framework was tested through 20,000 simulations across a 3,000-by-3,000-kilometer area. At a low density of three HAPS per 100,000 square kilometers, coverage probability increased from 0.58 onshore to 0.86 just offshore before approaching 0.79 farther out at sea. At higher platform densities, however, offshore users became more exposed to interference from multiple clear links.
“A single HAPS deployment can affect users very differently across islands, coastlines and open seas,” said Hao Lin. “Our goal is to provide guidelines for HAPS deployment and ensure fair, high-quality connectivity for users wherever they are.”
The findings suggest that a nonuniform deployment is more likely to provide the best performance everywhere. Obstructed island areas may benefit from denser coverage, while open maritime regions may require greater spacing between platforms. In the future, field measurements, more realistic terrain models, advanced beamforming and further analysis of uplink communications are required.
More information can be found in the paper:
