Multi‐Layer UAV Ad Hoc Network Architecture, Protocol and Simulation

Wireless Networks allow communication between nodes without any support from existing infrastructure. In this manner, nowadays industries are showing interest in ad-ad hoc networks. Relatively a new research area introduced in ad hoc networks called Flying Ad hoc Networks (FANETs). It consists of a collection of nodes called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that fly in the air autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans. There is no need to link all UAVs to a ground station in FANET, only one backbone UAV connects with the ground station, and remaining all UAVs communicate with each other in an ad hoc manner. FANETs are more effective to provide data connectivity as opposed to ground-based networks such as MANETs and VANETs. Communication between mobile nodes is a big challenging-issue in FANETs due-to the high-mobility of nodes in the network area. Many routing protocols were developed for MANETs and VANETs can't be applied directly on FANET applications. It is necessary to design an efficient and reliable routing protocol for FANETs to provide efficient communication among the UAVs. Within the performance of routing protocol, mobility-model acts a major role in-FANETs. In FANET, the selection of a suitable mobility model is a critical task for researchers. In this chapter, communication architecture is suitable for FANETs, what is the needs of routing protocol and mobility model for data delivery in the network and, which protocol and mobility model provides strong communications between UAV-to-UAV networks is discussed.