Experimental Evaluation of a UAV-Mounted LEO Satellite Backhaul for Emergency Connectivity

Reliable connectivity is critical for Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) operations, especially in rural or compromised environments where terrestrial infrastructure is unavailable. In such scenarios, Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs), and specifically Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are promising candidates to provide on-demand and rapid connectivity on the ground, serving as aerial base stations. In this paper, we implement a setup in which a rotary-wing UAV, equipped with a Starlink Mini terminal, provides Internet connectivity to an emergency ground user in the absence of cellular coverage via Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. The UAV functions as Wi-Fi access point, while backhauling the ground traffic through the Starlink constellation. We evaluate the system via both network simulations in ns-3 and real-world flight experiments in a rural environment, in terms of throughput, latency, coverage, and energy consumption under static and dynamic flight conditions. Our results demonstrate that the system can maintain a stable uplink throughput of approximately 30 Mbps up to approximately 200 meters, and with minimal impact on the UAV battery lifetime. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of deploying commercial LEO satellite terminals on UAVs as a practical solution for emergency connectivity.