Demo Abstract: Video Streaming in Multi-hop Aerial Networks

Recent advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have enabled countless new applications in the domain of aerial sensing. In scenarios such as intrusion detection, target tracking and facility monitoring it is important to reach a given area of interest (AOI), and create an online data streaming connection to a monitoring ground station (GS) for immediate delivery of content to the operator. In previous work, we showed that a multi-hop line network can increase the range of the mission by finding the optimal number of relay UAVs, and their optimal placement. In this demo, we show that CSMA (typical 802.11's medium access protocol) behaves poorly in this type of networks due to mutual interference, and that TDMA is a better alternative. We will also discuss how changing slot width online can overcome typical and less known TDMA inefficiencies, and therefore reach maximum end-to-end throughput and low delay.