Robust Communication Framework for Unmanned Aerial Systems

Robust Communication Framework for Unmanned Aerial Systems

Ketelaars, V.J.M.J.

Pouwelse, J. (mentor)

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Parallel and Distributed Systems

Computer Science

2014-07-17

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) are emerging in the industrial, consumer and re- search domains. A key challenge for UAS communications is overcoming slow and unreliable wireless connectivity by achieving high link utilization on multiple radio interfaces. We have developed and implemented a peer-to-peer communication framework, based on Dispersy and Libswift, that allows multihomed (connected to multiple networks) UASs to utilize all available links. In our experiments we address four use cases. The first use case describes data transfer from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to a ground station, where the UAV starts and finishes out of communicative reach. The second use case expands on the first by utilizing two links on both entities. The third use case focuses on a UAV relaying communication between two ground stations that are incapable of communicating directly. The final use case has two ground stations in contact with each other, that successively receive data from a UAV and immediately share it. The results show low data transfer throughput in general. Multi-link utilization is functional, but the data transfer rate is 32% lower for two links than for a single link. Data duplication rates are significantly higher for wireless links than for wired links, and more than double when utilizing two links instead of one. Libswift is responsible for the data transfer and its reported problem with long latency is suggested to be the primary cause for these disappointing results. Thus, future implementations should work with an improved version of Libswift. We consider the effective utilization of multiple links combined with peer-to-peer systems to have real world use cases for UAVs and mobile devices in general. Therefore, we recommend future research to focus on deployable applications to that end.

UAV
Peer-to-peer
Multihoming

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:62da8ff0-fbfc-483a-8177-0f7b50b16c89

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 Ketelaars, V.J.M.J.