Location Information Sharing Using Software Defined Radio in Multi-UAV Systems

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates multi-channel wireless communication for multi-UAV systems using SDRs and GNU Radio, providing a reproducible implementation and testing in a realistic environment.

Contribution

It introduces a practical multi-channel communication setup for UAVs using SDRs, with open-source code and detailed block diagrams for reproducibility.

Findings

Successful establishment of multi-channel communication between SDRs

Implementation of token circulation channel access protocol

Open-source software and hardware design available for replication

Abstract

SDR (Software Defined Radio) provides flexible, reproducible, and longer-lasting radio tools for military and civilian wireless communications infrastructure. SDR is a radio communication system whose components are implemented as software. This study aims to establish multi-channel wireless communication with FANET between two SDRs to share location information and examine it in a realistic test environment. We used multi-channel token circulation as a channel access protocol and GNU Radio platform for SDR software development. The structures of the communication layer, including the protocols, communication systems, and network structures suggested in the studies in the literature, are generally tested in the simulation environment. The simulation environment provides researchers with fast and easy development and testing, but disadvantages exist. These cause a product to be isolated from hardware, software, and cost effects encountered while developing and environmental factors affecting the communication channel while testing. Another contribution of the study is to present the developed block diagrams and codes as clear and reproducible. The developed software and block diagrams are available at github.com/knrl/uav-in-802.11-gnuradio.