Emulation-Based Performance Evaluation of Routing Protocols for Uaanets

UAV Ad hoc NETwork (UAANET) is a subset of the wellknown Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs). It consists of forming an ad hoc network with multiple small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and the Ground Control Station (GCS). Similar to MANETs, the UAANET communication architecture is infrastructure-less and self-configuring network of several nodes forwarding data packets. However, it also has some specific features that brings challenges on network connectivity. Consequently, an adapted routing protocol is needed to exchange data packets within UAANETs. In this paper, we introduce a new hybrid experimental system that can evaluate different types of adhoc routing protocols under a realistic UAANET scenario. It is based on virtual machines and the Virtualmesh [1] framework to emulate physical aspects. We evaluated AODV, DSR and OLSR efficiency in a realistic scenario with three UAVs scanning an area. Our results show that AODV outperformed OLSR and DSR.