SUN: A Simulated UAV Network Testbed with Hardware-in-the-Loop SDR Support

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are already part of everyday life as they are commonly used for disaster response, industrial applications, and smart farming. Resilient and flexible communication is key for the operation of UAVs themselves as well as many applications realized using them, e.g., gathering of data from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors without a direct uplink. Realizing new ideas, optimizations, and what-if analyses are usually lengthy processes to get from theoretical models to the actual real-world implementation. We propose an integrated testbed using emulation, where actual implementations can be evaluated in virtual environments that also simulate the network connectivity. Through the use of a software stack similar to actual UAVs that is built around Linux and the PX4 flight controller, we allow realistic prototyping, automated experiments and interactive missions. Additionally, we enable Hardware-in-the-Loop integration through a wideband Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based channel emulator to experiment with new radio links for more robust UAV control in challenging environments.