Performance Analysis of Mobile Ad Hoc Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Communication Networks with Directional Antennas

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have the potential of creating an ad hoc communication network in the air. Most UAVs used in communication networks are equipped with wireless transceivers using omnidirectional antennas. In this paper, we consider a collection of UAVs that communicate through wireless links as a mobile ad-hoc network using directional antennas. The network design goal is to maximize the throughput and minimize the end-to-end delay. In this respect, we propose a new medium access control protocol for a network of UAVs with directional antennas. We analyze the communication channel between the UAVs and the effect of aircraft attitude on the network performance. Using the optimized network engineering tool (OPNET), we compare our protocol with the IEEE 802.11 protocol for omnidirectional antennas. The simulation results show performance improvement in end-to-end delay as well as throughput.