Optimized swarm architectures in airborne internet

Abstract

There is a tremendous growth in telecommunication networks due to the emergence of various communication techniques. Optical communications have been the major contributors to it. Free space optical communication (FSO) is a technique based on transmission of data by propagating the light in free space. This is an effective technique to transmit the data at high bit rate over short distance with the added advantage of easy and fast installation and high security. Hybrid RF/FSO technique improve the overall reliability of the system. In this paper, aerial application of the RF/FSO system, i.e., airborne Internet which includes the use of optical links in the network of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is given. Different formations of UAV swarms, few methods to combat the problems faced by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and high altitude platform (HAPs) for research work have been discussed. A model is also proposed to improve the reliability of the swarm network.