A clustering method for energy efficient management of heterogeneous nodes of a flying ad hoc network

Abstract

The current paper presents a clustering method for energy efficient management of heterogeneous nodes of a flying ad hoc network (FANET). The technological advances of the last decade gave rise to emerging technologies. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are small aircraft that proved their usefulness for different tasks nowadays. They can collaborate to achieve missions especially in areas where traditional networks cannot work or cannot accede. A FANET is composed by a number of these aircraft. For alike networks, the resources are limited. Indeed, an efficient energy management is required to extend the life of the network. This work is a clustering method for heterogeneous nodes of a FANET, each node is equipped with one sensor, and four different sensors are used. Clustering is grouping nodes with the aim of efficiency improvement. The clustering is done before the beginning of the rescue mission and depends on the types of sensors the nodes are equipped with and. The master election depends on the available energy of each one of the nodes. The simulation is done with a discrete event simulator (DES) and the results are compared to the algorithm of glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) to demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested technique.