A Heterogeneous Dual-Channel Routing Protocol Based on OLSR for FANETs

Routing plays a crucial role in Flying Ad-Hoc networks (FANETs). The high-speed movement of nodes causes rapid changes in network topology. Traditional FANETs with single-channel nodes are prone to node isolation and network fragmentation due to limited communication distance, which in turn degrades the network performance. Heterogeneous dual-channel nodes can improve the reliability of FANETs by adding a low-frequency reliable control channel with a longer communication distance. However, there is no routing protocol available for this type of FANETs. To address the above problem, this paper proposes a routing protocol, called DC-OLSR (Dual-Channel OLSR) for heterogeneous dual-channel FANETs based on the well-known routing protocol OLSR. The protocol makes full use of the two channels for joint route discovery. By distinguishing the priorities of different data streams, data can be adaptively transmitted through the control channel and the data channel to ensure reliable transmission of critical data between critical nodes and improve the reliability and throughput of the whole network. Simulation results have shown that DC-OLSR significantly outperforms single-channel OLSR and AODV in terms of packet delivery rate and everage end-to-end transmission delay.