A Survey of Air-to-Ground Propagation Channel Modeling for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), particularly for small UAVs, due to their affordable prices, ease of availability, and ease of operability. Existing and future applications of UAVs include remote surveillance and monitoring, relief operations, package delivery, and communication backhaul infrastructure. Additionally, UAVs are envisioned as an important component of 5G wireless technology and beyond. The unique application scenarios for UAVs necessitate accurate air-to-ground (AG) propagation channel models for designing and evaluating UAV communication links for control/non-payload as well as payload data transmissions. These AG propagation models have not been investigated in detail when compared to terrestrial propagation models. In this paper, a comprehensive survey is provided on available AG channel measurement campaigns, large and small scale fading channel models, their limitations, and future research directions for UAV communication scenarios

Survey of Inter-satellite Communication for Small Satellite Systems: Physical Layer to Network Layer View

Small satellite systems enable whole new class of missions for navigation, communications, remote sensing and scientific research for both civilian and military purposes. As individual spacecraft are limited by the size, mass and power constraints, mass-produced small satellites in large constellations or clusters could be useful in many science missions such as gravity mapping, tracking of forest fires, finding water resources, etc. Constellation of satellites provide improved spatial and temporal resolution of the target. Small satellite constellations contribute innovative applications by replacing a single asset with several very capable spacecraft which opens the door to new applications. With increasing levels of autonomy, there will be a need for remote communication networks to enable communication between spacecraft. These space based networks will need to configure and maintain dynamic routes, manage intermediate nodes, and reconfigure themselves to achieve mission objectives. Hence, inter-satellite communication is a key aspect when satellites fly in formation. In this paper, we present the various researches being conducted in the small satellite community for implementing inter-satellite communications based on the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. This paper also reviews the various design parameters applicable to the first three layers of the OSI model, i.e., physical, data link and network layer. Based on the survey, we also present a comprehensive list of design parameters useful for achieving inter-satellite communications for multiple small satellite missions. Specific topics include proposed solutions for some of the challenges faced by small satellite systems, enabling operations using a network of small satellites, and some examples of small satellite missions involving formation flying aspects.Comment: 51 pages, 21 Figures, 11 Tables, accepted in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

Layer 2 Path Selection Protocol for Wireless Mesh Networks with Smart Antennas

In this thesis the possibilities of smart antenna systems in wireless mesh networks are examined. With respect to the individual smart antenna tradeoffs, a routing protocol (Modified HWMP, MHWMP) for IEEE 802.11s mesh networks is presented, that exploits the full range of benefits provided by smart antennas: MHWMP actively switches between the PHY-layer transmission/reception modes (multiplexing, beamforming and diversity) according to the wireless channel conditions. Spatial multiplexing and beamforming are used for unicast data transmissions, while antenna diversity is employed for efficient broadcasts. To adapt to the directional channel environment and to take full benefit of the PHY capabilities, a respective MAC scheme is employed. The presented protocol is tested in extensive simulation and the results are examined.:1 Introduction 2 Wireless Mesh Networks 3 IEEE 802.11s 4 Smart Antenna Concepts 5 State of the Art: Wireless Mesh Networks with Smart Antennas 6 New Concepts 7 System Model 8 Results and Discussion 9 Conclusion and Future Wor

Improving the Performance of Medium Access Control Protocols for Mobile Adhoc Network with Smart Antennas

Requirements for high quality links and great demand for high throughput in Wireless LAN especially Mobile Ad-hoc Network has motivated new enhancements and work in Wireless communications such as Smart Antenna Systems. Smart (adaptive) Antennas enable spatial reuse, increase throughput and they increase the communication range because of the increase directivity of the antenna array. These enhancements quantified for the physical layer may not be efficiently utilized, unless the Media Access Control (MAC) layer is designed accordingly. This thesis implements the behaviours of two MAC protocols, ANMAC and MMAC protocols in OPNET simulator. This method is known as the Physical-MAC layer simulation model. The entire physical layer is written in MATLAB, and MATLAB is integrated into OPNET to perform the necessary stochastic physical layer simulations. The aim is to investigate the performance improvement in throughput and delay of the selected MAC Protocols when using Smart Antennas in a mobile environment. Analytical methods were used to analyze the average throughput and delay performance of the selected MAC Protocols with Adaptive Antenna Arrays in MANET when using spatial diversity. Comparison study has been done between the MAC protocols when using Switched beam antenna and when using the proposed scheme. It has been concluded that the throughput and delay performance of the selected protocols have been improved by the use of Adaptive Antenna Arrays. The throughput and delay performance of ANMAC-SW and ANMAC-AA protocols was evaluated in details against regular Omni 802.11 stations. Our results promise significantly enhancement over Omni 802.11, with a throughput of 25% for ANMAC-SW and 90% for ANMC-AA. ANMAC-AA outperforms ANMAC-SW protocol by 60%. Simulation experiments indicate that by using the proposed scheme with 4 Adaptive Antenna Array per a node, the average throughput in the network can be improved up to 2 to 2.5 times over that obtained by using Switched beam Antennas. The proposed scheme improves the performances of both ANMAC and MMAC protocols but ANMAC outperforms MMAC by 30%