A Cooperative Transmission Scheme in Drone-Based Networks

In this paper, we propose an uplink multiuser-multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) cooperative retransmission control scheme for the reliable and efficient communication of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (i.e., flight communication and drone-to-drone communication). This scheme is a key element in the design of a drone-based ad-hoc network. Because drone relay transmission operates in the air, flexible wireless relay networks over large areas can be achieved without interference from multipath signals caused by buildings and obstacles in ground-based communication. However, two main challenges exist. First, the relay transmission system occupies bandwidth every time the drone relays information. Therefore, because the radio channel is shared by multiple relay stations, the throughput is greatly reduced. To improve throughput, it is better to transmit using the minimum number of relay stations. Ultimately, long-distance direct transmission is the best. The other issue is a direct result of the first issues solution: the propagation loss increase when relaying information directly over a long distance. Moreover, because the frequency of interference waves from the ground increases, transmission signal errors are an important issue. To solve this issue, a transmission scheme to reduce errors is required. The scheme proposed in this study achieves high transmission reliability and efficiency even under high transmission error conditions. The results of a computer simulation reveal that the proposed method achieves a direct transmission throughput that is 1.5 times better than that of a conventional scheme. It is also shown that the proposed scheme requires only about three stations to achieve acceptable results.