Research Projects

The evolution of space and aerial platforms has led to the development of space-airborne-terrestrial (SAT) wireless frameworks, which can be integrated into terrestrial networks to build a fully globally connected architecture for next-generation communication networks. This technology is expected to support emerging applications such as disaster-affected areas, emergency scenarios, and smart cities. The inherent characteristics of space and aerial platforms create a complex 3D network, making it more complex than existing terrestrial networks. This project aims to develop analytical modeling and optimization to analyze the performance of SATCN to satisfy the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of different applications. Free-space optical (FSO) communication is essential for space-air communication due to its low absorption and scattering loss in the space environment. However, due to high absorption and scattering loss in the earth's atmosphere due to rain, fog, and clouds, RF links are preferred for connecting aerial and terrestrial systems. This project integrates FSO and RF links into a single system to explore the integration benefits of FSO/RF links for SATCN. The project also aims to enhance communication performance via Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) by boosting signal strength and providing 360⁰ coverage for multiple applications. It explores IRS placement, scheduling, and resource allocation to maximize user performance and maximize secrecy performance in the presence of an aerial eavesdropper flying closer to a serving aerial platform. Overall, this project provides an integrated framework of IRS-assisted multi-user downlink SATCN from modeling, analysis, and algorithmic design perspectives.