Evaluating UAV-to-Car Communications Performance: From Testbed to Simulation Experiments

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), popularly known as drones, are foreseen as mobile infrastructures that support communications when a fixed infrastructure is missing in vehicular networks. UAVs can act as message relays between ground vehicles or broadcast alerts in emergency situations. Simulation that involves UAVs, combined with ground vehicles, should support 3D transmission features as the drone is not positioned in a flat surface. Results from real test bed experiments showed that irregular terrains that form hills and mountains can act as obstacles that limit the communications range. In this paper, we propose a simulation framework that runs within the OMNeT++ simulator which exhibits results comparable to the ones obtained in the real test bed, when applied to different scenarios. In the simulation, a measurement of the communications quality between UAVs and cars that considers 3D real-world terrain features which will have an impact on signal attenuation shows that the level of realism has improved when compared to simulation experiments that only consider planar communications.