O-AAV: Programmable Software-Defined Optical Wireless Communication AAV Networking Testbed

Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (AAVs) networks have attracted ever-increasing attention of researchers in recent years. There have been significant efforts to advance the OWC AAV networking system to develop new solutions, including optimal resource allocation algorithms and networking control methods. However, current OWC-AAV research is either based on simulations or in-flexible hardware platforms that can support mostly point-to-point, low-data-rate applications. Therefore, in this paper, we are the first to propose and discuss the design of a new programmable software-defined optical wireless communication-based AAV networking platform, O-AAV, with characteristics in terms of data rate, transmission distance, and hardware/software flexibility in support of different light sources and distributed networking operations. The main architectural choices of the new platform are discussed in detail, as well as preliminary performance evaluation results. Data rates in the order of Mbps are achieved in a controlled lab environment, and 500 Kbps data rates achieved more than 10 m transmission distance in the outdoor environment, respectively. We also effectively address the PD saturation problem and interference from other ambient light sources, which most OWC testbeds face. Lastly, to the best of our knowledge, we are the first to demonstrate the networking capability of the proposed architecture and prototype by implementing ALOHA.