Engineering a Network in the Sky

Due to their small dimensions, limited battery capacity, high-speed mobility patterns, and frequent in- and out-of-line of sight channel conditions of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), maintaining reliable communication with ground control station (and among the drones), especially in highly populated and urban environments, is a challenging problem, which requires innovative approaches. For example, control of a drone requires reliable communication between a drone and a ground control station, which is difficult to achieve in a practical, fade-susceptible, non-line-of-sight wireless environments, where the communication is subject to multiple propagation obstacles. In this research, we leverage the collaborative communication of multiple drones, as to create a reliable and powerful communication links, which as part of the network (referred to here as a 'Network in the Sky'), will benefit the individual drones in communication with their own ground control station (GCS), as well as among distant and/or difficult to reach other UAVs.