The impact of cooperative unmanned aerial vehicles communication under Nakagami-m fading channel

Abstract

Purpose: In this paper, an analytical model is developed to evaluate the performance of CT medium access control protocol for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) on Nakagami-m channel fading. Theory and Methods: The proposed protocol mainly includes DT and CT modes to increase throughput. Also, the algorithm is defined to select a suitable data transmission mode and select the optimal relay. Only the mechanism defined in the IEEE 802.11 standards specifically designed for direct communication is not suitable for cooperative commBEWunication. Therefore, new control packages are used and the existing control package format has been changed to support cooperative communication. To perform the performance analysis of the proposed CT mode protocol, an analytical model based on the unsaturated Markov Chain model was derived and validated by simulation. The simulation results show that the proposed protocol maximizes the system throughput. Results: The performance of CT mode is higher than DT mode (IEEE 802.11). Throughput is higher in CT mode due to optimal R. The system using the Rayleigh fading channel (m=1) has the lowest throughput. The extra packet transmission with an increase of N lowers the data rate and increases the probability of collisions. The system using the Rayleigh fading channel (m=1) has the lowest data rate. The probability of failed transmission increases with increasing N for the fading channels. More packets will compete for transmission with an increase in Nwhich will increase the probability of collisions. Conclusion: The performance of the IEEE 802.11 MAC layer for CT mode was investigated using the Markov chain model in unsaturated conditions. The performance of the CT mode in the proposed MAC protocol has been studied under Nakagami-m channel fading for UAVs. Different data transmission modes are proposed to increase the throughput and a mechanism for selecting the appropriate data transmission mode is presented. Collision probability, successful and unsuccessful transmission probability, throughput, and delay expressions are derived. The performance of the CT mode protocol under fading channels is clearly demonstrated by the simulation results. It is clear that due to the increased probability of successful transmission, the data rate increases. On the other hand, channel fading reduces the data rate due to the increased probability of unsuccessful transmission.