skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Cooperative UAV-Based Communications Backbone for Sensor Networks

Abstract

The objective of this project is to investigate the use of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) as mobile, adaptive communications backbones for ground-based sensor networks. In this type of network, the UAVs provide communication connectivity to sensors that cannot communicate with each other because of terrain, distance, or other geographical constraints. In these situations, UAVs provide a vertical communication path for the sensors, thereby mitigating geographic obstacles often imposed on networks. With the proper use of UAVs, connectivity to a widely disbursed sensor network in rugged terrain is readily achieved. Our investigation has focused on networks where multiple cooperating UAVs are used to form a network backbone. The advantage of using multiple UAVs to form the network backbone is parallelization of sensor connectivity. Many widely spaced or isolated sensors can be connected to the network at once using this approach. In these networks, the UAVs logically partition the sensor network into sub-networks (subnets), with one UAV assigned per subnet. Partitioning the network into subnets allows the UAVs to service sensors in parallel thereby decreasing the sensor-to-network connectivity. A UAV services sensors in its subnet by flying a route (path) through the subnet, uplinking data collected by the sensors, and forwarding themore » data to a ground station. An additional advantage of using multiple UAVs in the network is that they provide redundancy in the communications backbone, so that the failure of a single UAV does not necessarily imply the loss of the network.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
US Department of Energy (US)
OSTI Identifier:
15003401
Report Number(s):
UCRL-ID-145787
TRN: US200431%%79
DOE Contract Number:  
W-7405-ENG-48
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 7 Oct 2001
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; COMMUNICATIONS; REDUNDANCY; LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY

Citation Formats

Roberts, R S. Cooperative UAV-Based Communications Backbone for Sensor Networks. United States: N. p., 2001. Web. doi:10.2172/15003401.
Roberts, R S. Cooperative UAV-Based Communications Backbone for Sensor Networks. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/15003401
Roberts, R S. 2001. "Cooperative UAV-Based Communications Backbone for Sensor Networks". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/15003401. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/15003401.
@article{osti_15003401,
title = {Cooperative UAV-Based Communications Backbone for Sensor Networks},
author = {Roberts, R S},
abstractNote = {The objective of this project is to investigate the use of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) as mobile, adaptive communications backbones for ground-based sensor networks. In this type of network, the UAVs provide communication connectivity to sensors that cannot communicate with each other because of terrain, distance, or other geographical constraints. In these situations, UAVs provide a vertical communication path for the sensors, thereby mitigating geographic obstacles often imposed on networks. With the proper use of UAVs, connectivity to a widely disbursed sensor network in rugged terrain is readily achieved. Our investigation has focused on networks where multiple cooperating UAVs are used to form a network backbone. The advantage of using multiple UAVs to form the network backbone is parallelization of sensor connectivity. Many widely spaced or isolated sensors can be connected to the network at once using this approach. In these networks, the UAVs logically partition the sensor network into sub-networks (subnets), with one UAV assigned per subnet. Partitioning the network into subnets allows the UAVs to service sensors in parallel thereby decreasing the sensor-to-network connectivity. A UAV services sensors in its subnet by flying a route (path) through the subnet, uplinking data collected by the sensors, and forwarding the data to a ground station. An additional advantage of using multiple UAVs in the network is that they provide redundancy in the communications backbone, so that the failure of a single UAV does not necessarily imply the loss of the network.},
doi = {10.2172/15003401},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/15003401}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2001},
month = {Sun Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2001}
}