Programmable Software-Defined Testbed for Visible Light UAV Networks: Architecture Design and Implementation

As of Today, There Has Been Increasing Research on Designing Optimization Algorithms and Intelligent Network Control Methods for Visible Light Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Networks to Provide Pervasive and Broadband Connections. for Those Theoretical Analysis based Algorithms, there is an Urgent Need to Have a Visible Light UAV Network Platform that Can Help Evaluate the Proposed Algorithms in Real-World Scenarios. However, to the Best of Our Knowledge, there is Currently No Dedicated High Data Rate and Flexible Visible Light UAV Networking Prototype. to Bridge This Gap, in This Paper, We First Design a Novel Programmable Software-Defined Architecture for Visible Light UAV Networking, Including Control Plane, Network Plane, Signal Processing Chain and Front-Ends Plane, and Ground Facility Plane. We Then Implement a Prototype and Conduct Numerous Experiments to Validate the Feasibility of Visible-Light UAV Networks and Further Evaluate the System Performance Pertaining to Achievable Data Rate and Transmission Distance. the Real-Time Video Streaming Experimental Results Show that Up to 550 Kbps Data Rate and a Maximum Distance of 7 Meters Can Be Achieved

Will 5G See its Blind Side? Evolving 5G for Universal Internet Access

Internet has shown itself to be a catalyst for economic growth and social equity but its potency is thwarted by the fact that the Internet is off limits for the vast majority of human beings. Mobile phones---the fastest growing technology in the world that now reaches around 80\% of humanity---can enable universal Internet access if it can resolve coverage problems that have historically plagued previous cellular architectures (2G, 3G, and 4G). These conventional architectures have not been able to sustain universal service provisioning since these architectures depend on having enough users per cell for their economic viability and thus are not well suited to rural areas (which are by definition sparsely populated). The new generation of mobile cellular technology (5G), currently in a formative phase and expected to be finalized around 2020, is aimed at orders of magnitude performance enhancement. 5G offers a clean slate to network designers and can be molded into an architecture also amenable to universal Internet provisioning. Keeping in mind the great social benefits of democratizing Internet and connectivity, we believe that the time is ripe for emphasizing universal Internet provisioning as an important goal on the 5G research agenda. In this paper, we investigate the opportunities and challenges in utilizing 5G for global access to the Internet for all (GAIA). We have also identified the major technical issues involved in a 5G-based GAIA solution and have set up a future research agenda by defining open research problems

Planning UAV Activities for Efficient User Coverage in Disaster Areas

Climate changes brought about by global warming as well as man-made environmental changes are often the cause of sever natural disasters. ICT, which is itself responsible for global warming due to its high carbon footprint, can play a role in alleviating the consequences of such hazards by providing reliable, resilient means of communication during a disaster crisis. In this paper, we explore the provision of wireless coverage through UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to complement, or replace, the traditional communication infrastructure. The use of UAVs is indeed crucial in emergency scenarios, as they allow for the quick and easy deployment of micro and pico cellular base stations where needed. We characterize the movements of UAVs and define an optimization problem to determine the best UAV coverage that maximizes the user throughput, while maintaining fairness across the different parts of the geographical area that has been affected by the disaster. To evaluate our strategy, we simulate a flooding in San Francisco and the car traffic resulting from people seeking safety on higher ground