Enhanced connectivity for robust multimedia transmission in UAV networks

The usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks has stimulated the development of new multimedia applications due to their high degree of mobility and versatility. Although the transmission of data on UAVs using geographic protocols enables better data delivery rate, it is not enough to provide quality of experience (QoE). This happens due to the high mobility degree of UAVs, occurring thus broken links during the transmission. Those broken links damage the connectivity and cause delays and packet loss. This paper proposes a mechanism, called ECORA, to enhance the routing decision making on geographic protocols, and thus improving the connectivity of UAV networks. ECORA takes into account the positioning prediction and link expiration time. In order to assess the gains with ECORA, it was added to the GPSR protocol and evaluated by simulation experiments. Results show that ECORA favored GPSR to obtain higher delivery packets and lower end-to-end delay, as well as better video quality delivered.