ABSOLUTE · Aerial Base Stations with Opportunistic Links for Unexpected & Temporary Events

Recent history has shown that in the aftermath of an emergency, disaster or related unexpected events, telecommunication infrastructures play a key role in recovery operations. In most cases, the legacy terrestrial infrastructure is seriously compromised and cannot guarantee reliable services for citizens and rescue teams. It is also well accepted that current public safety networks cannot provide sufficient capacity for broadband applications.The main goal of ABSOLUTE is to design and validate a holistic and rapidly deployable mobile network to provide broadband services based on a flexible, scalable, resilient and secure network design.The most important elements that ABSOLUTE will pioneer are i) LTE-A base station embedded in Low Altitude Platform enabling a large coverage for broadband services ii) Portable land mobile base stations interoperable with conventional public safety networks, iii) Advanced multi-service professional terminals for first responders. The usage of satellite communications for both broadband backhauling as well as narrowband ubiquitous messaging services is another essential enabler.ABSOLUTE objectives will be achieved by developing innovative concepts out of promising ideas, namely cognitive mechanisms for dynamic spectrum management enabling a seamless network reconfiguration as well as opportunistic and cooperative networking mechanisms ensuring maximum system availability and dependability. Proof of concept implementations and realistic demonstrations are also envisaged.Thus ABSOLUTE will greatly impact the next generation public safety communication systems in Europe, enabling operators, manufacturers and other relevant stakeholders to exploit new market opportunities for LTE-A and satellite communications. The ABSOLUTE project aims also to greatly impact CEPT initiatives for frequency allocation in Europe and ETSI/3GPP standardization for public safety applications.