Unleashing the Potential of Aerial RISs in Post-Disaster Scenarios

Abstract

Conventional wireless network infrastructures are known to be susceptible to strong perturbations such as the ones caused by calamities. With this regard, whenever facing an emergency, it is vital to ensure reliable connectivity within the disaster-struck zone. Therefore, in this paper we promote the use of aerial reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) as a possible solution for supporting any possible damages affecting terrestrial base stations (TBSs). At the same time, we discuss the main differences between the aerial RIS (ARIS) technology and its parent ones, namely the terrestrial RIS (TRIS) and the aerial base station (ABS). To support our vision, we recall hurricane Maria, which affected Puerto Rico in 2017, and propose insightful real-world-inspired simulation results in order to discuss what we believe are the main challenges for a commercial implementation of ARISs in post-disaster scenarios.