Deception and Asymmetry of Low-Power Links in UAV Assisted Wireless Sensor Networks

Most existing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted wireless sensor network (WSN) studies usually assume that using a large SNR or a short distance can ensure good link quality. However, they don't consider the actual characteristics of UAV assisted WSN. In this paper, spatial characteristics of wireless links, link quality indicating capabilities of physical layer metrics and symmetry of uplink and downlink are analyzed by comparing the measured data of UAV assisted WSN and traditional WSN. The results show that link characteristics of UAV assisted WSN have changed significantly compared with those of traditional WSN. Firstly, connected region of the three traditional communication regions (connected region, transitional region, and disconnected region) is significantly compressed and even no longer exists, which makes that short distance can no longer guarantee reliable communication. Secondly, traditional physical layer metrics such as RSSI, SNR and LQI are no longer valid and even become deceptive, which may lead to wrong judgment of link quality. Finally, there is obvious overall asymmetry between uplink and downlink of UAV assisted WSN, and the quality of downlink is significantly higher than that of the uplink. The discovery of these new features would have great significance on guiding the design of UAV assisted WSN.