Enabling Multi-Mission Interoperable UAS Using Data-Centric Communications

Abstract

We claim the strong potential of data-centric communications in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), as a suitable paradigm to enhance collaborative operations via efficient information sharing, as well as to build systems supporting flexible mission objectives. In particular, this paper analyzes the primary contributions to data dissemination in UAS that can be given by the Data Distribution Service (DDS) open standard, as a solid and industry-mature data-centric technology. Our study is not restricted to traditional UAS where a set of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) transmit data to the ground station that controls them. Instead, we contemplate flexible UAS deployments with multiple UAV units of different sizes and capacities, which are interconnected to form an aerial communication network, enabling the provision of value-added services over a delimited geographical area. In addition, the paper outlines an approach to address the issues inherent to the utilization of network-level multicast, a baseline technology in DDS, in the considered UAS deployments. We complete our analysis with a practical experience aiming at validating the feasibility and the advantages of using DDS in a multi-UAV deployment scenario. For this purpose, we use a UAS testbed built up by heterogeneous hardware equipment, including a number of interconnected micro aerial vehicles, carrying single board computers as payload, as well as real equipment from a tactical UAS from the Spanish Ministry of Defense.

Software-Defined Multi-domain Tactical Networks: Foundations and Future Directions

“…The mechanism set this data importance in terms of the latency sensitivity attribute of the packets defined by the DDS QoS level. Moreover, in [38], a DDS-based SDN middleware is considered that supports on-demand access to UAV-aided services from authorized entities at the ground. It also facilitates distributed DDS orchestration to enhance interoperation and meet mobility constraints of UAVs.…”

Transport-Layer Limitations for NFV Orchestration in Resource-Constrained Aerial Networks

“…However, we want to highlight that according to our previous research on this area, there is still a lack of consensus from the research community and the industry on a standard design for SUAVs that using existing protocols and technologies, enables the flexible execution of general-purpose telecommunication services and functionalities [14]. Despite the market opportunities in this area, commercial SUAV products are typically proprietary solutions, i.e., usually manufactured to accomplish specific missions.…”

A virtualization approach to validate services and subsystems of a MALE UAS

“…To face these challenges, this article presents a platform based on virtualization techniques, aiming to serve as a test environment for new communication developments and technologies to be incorporated into the MILANO system. Authors have already faced these challenges before for small UAVs [2], [7]. The goal now is to evolve this experience and apply it in much larger systems such as the MILANO, being able not only to test different communication components like routers (on the aircraft and the ground station) but also to incorporate physical equipment such as the UAV camera, the data acquisition unit, or the pilot workstation into the experiments.…”