Intelligent Wireless Ad Hoc Routing Protocol and Controller for UAV Networks

........................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1 1.1 Motivation and problem statement ....................................................................1 1.2 Research Objectives ...........................................................................................5 1.3 Contributions ......................................................................................................5 1.4 Thesis outline .....................................................................................................6 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORKS ...........................................................7 2.1 WiFi Roaming ....................................................................................................7 2.2 Routing protocols .............................................................................................14 2.2.1 Wired networking standards ..................................................................16 2.2.2 Infrastructure-based wireless networking standards ..............................17 2.2.3 Ad hoc wireless routing protocols .........................................................17 CHAPTER 3: PROPOSED APPROACH .................................................................................24 3.1 Algorithm for UAV-UAV communications .....................................................27 3.1.1 Network Assumptions ............................................................................28 3.1.2 The controller .........................................................................................29 3.1.3 UAV structure ........................................................................................29 3.1.4 Priority levels .........................................................................................31 3.1.5 Network setup and discovery .................................................................33 3.1.6 Responsibilities of the controller ...........................................................39 3.1.7 Physical layer .........................................................................................41 3.1.8 Medium access control ..........................................................................42 3.1.9 UAV reports and route updates..............................................................51 3.1.10 UAV-UAV communication ...................................................................53 3.1.11 Loss of connection .................................................................................54 3.2 Algorithm for WiFi communications ...............................................................55 3.2.1 WiFi setup ..............................................................................................56 3.2.2 WiFi update ............................................................................................57 3.2.3 User addition/removal ............................................................................57 3.3 Low power and power management ................................................................57 3.4 User transfer due to overcrowding or traffic spikes .........................................60