The development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology provides more possibilities for wireless networks. The application of UAVs is gradually evolving from individual UAVs performing tasks to UAV swarm performing tasks in concert. A UAV swarm network is when many drones work cooperatively in a swarm mode to achieve a particular goal. Due to the UAV swarm's easy deployment, self-organization, self-management, and high flexibility, it can provide robust and efficient wireless communications in some unique scenarios, such as emergency communications, hotspot region coverage, sensor networks, and vehicular networks. Therefore, UAV networks have attracted more and more attention from commercial and military; however, many problems need to be resolved before UAV cellular communications become a reality. One of the most challenging core components is the routing protocol design in the UAV swarm network. Due to the high mobility of UAVs, the position of each UAV changes dynamically, so problems such as high latency, high packet loss rate, and even loss of connection arise when UAVs are far apart. These problems dramatically reduce the transmission rate and data integrity for traditional routing protocols based on path discovery. This thesis focuses on developing, emulating, and optimizing a flooding-based routing protocol for UAV swarm using Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) to improve the latency and bit rate and solve the packet loss problem without routing information and network topology. RLNC can reduce the number of packets demand in some hops. Due to this feature of RLNC, when relay transmitter UAVs or the destination receiver UAV receive sufficient encoded packets from any transmitter UAVs, the raw data can be decoded. For those relay transmitter UAVs in the UAV swarm network that already received some encoded packets in previous hops but not enough to decode the raw data, only need to receive the rest of the different encoded packets needed for decoding. Thus, flooding-based routing protocol significantly improves transmission efficiency in the UAV swarm network. / Master of Science / People are used to using fiber, 4G, and Wi-Fi in the city, but numerous people still live in areas without Internet access. Moreover, in some particular scenarios like large-scale activities, remote areas, and military operations, when the cellular network cannot provide enough bandwidth or good signal, UAV wireless network would be helpful and provide stable Internet access. Successful UAV test flights can last for several weeks, and researchers' interest in high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAVs are booming. HALE UAVs will create Wi-Fi or other network signals for remote areas, including polar regions, which will allow millions of people to enter the information society and connect to the Internet. The development of UAV and 5G provides more possibilities for wireless networks. UAV applications have evolved from individual UAV performing tasks to UAV swarm performing tasks. A UAV swarm network is where multiple drones work in tandem to achieve a particular goal. It can provide robust and efficient wireless communications in unique scenarios. As a result, UAVs are receiving attention from both commercial and military. However, there are still many problems that need to be resolved before the actual use of UAVs. One of the biggest challenges is routing protocol which is how UAVs communicate with each other and select routes. As the location of UAVs is constantly changing, this leads to delays, data loss, or complete loss of connectivity. Ultimately these issues can lead to slow transmission speed and lack of data integrity for traditional routing protocols based on path discovery. This thesis focuses on developing, emulating, and optimizing a flooding-based routing protocol for the UAV swarm. Specifically, this protocol uses RLNC, which can reduce the number of packets demand in some hops so that the latency and transmission speed will be improved, and the data loss problem will also be solved. Due to this feature of RLNC, when any receiver receives enough encoded packets from any transmitter, the original data can be decoded. Some receivers that already received some encoded packets in the previous transmission only need to receive the rest of the different encoded packets needed for decoding. Therefore, flooding-based routing protocol significantly improves transmission efficiency for UAV swarm networks.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/106939 |
| Date | 10 December 2021 |
| Creators | Xu, Bowen |
| Contributors | Electrical and Computer Engineering, Liu, Lingjia, Wang, Haining, Zeng, Haibo |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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