UD-MAC: Delay tolerant multiple access control protocol for unmanned aerial vehicle networks

Abstract

Since unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be flexibly deployed in the scenarios of environmental monitoring, remote sensing, search-and-rescue, etc., the network protocols of UAV networks supporting high data rate transmission have attracted considerable attentions. In this paper, the three-dimensional aerial sensor network is studied, where UAVs act as aerial sensors. The delay tolerant multiple access control protocol which is called UD-MAC1, is designed for UAV networks. The UD-MAC exploits the returning UAVs to store and carry the data of the UAVs along the returning paths to the destination. The returning UAVs are discovered by ground via the Control and Non-Payload Communication (CNPC) links, which contain the sense and avoid information among UAVs. And they are confirmed by the other UAVs via data links. Simulation results show that UD-MAC protocol increases the enhances of accessing channel by 31.8% compared with VeMAC protocol.