CNS Core: Small: 3D RF/FSO Mesh Networking with Challenged Infrastructure

As Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming part of civilian life, there is a significant opportunity in their effective utilization for improving the general wireless experience of people and provisioning better wireless access. With no cellular infrastructure support, at low altitudes, managing dense deployment of devices on the ground over the scarce radio spectrum is not trivial.

UAV-based coverage and aid of device-to-device (D2D) communications on the ground has the potential to be marketed and deployed across the nation for first responder teams operating under challenged infrastructure during disaster response and mitigation, and other commercial applications. UAVs can enable better altitude reuse by forming a 3D mesh network if they can utilize both radio frequency (RF) and free-space optical (FSO) communication and offer super-linear increases in the usage efficiency of the scarce wireless spectrum.

To realize such hybrid RF/FSO 3D mesh networking and wireless access provisioning under challenged infrastructure, this project investigates UAV-guided D2D communications, employing UAVs equipped with mechanically and electronically steered directional FSO communication modules for spatial reuse, and designing 3D mesh network protocols of RF/FSO communication links for smart altitude reuse. The project will provide graduate and undergraduate students with mentorship opportunities in the emerging field of UAV technology.

With UCF being recently categorized as a Hispanic Serving Institution, the project will also offer a great opportunity for involving minority groups in cutting edge research.

Possible outcomes from this project include novel UAV platform designs, multi-element FSO modules for inter-UAV communication, and 3D RF/FSO mesh network topology and protocol designs. The intellectual merits include: (i) Opportunistic integration of 3D mesh networks at Troposphere altitudes for spatial reuse into legacy RF technologies via UAVs with highly directional FSOC transceivers; (ii) Capability of steering directional transceivers and 3D UAV topology configuration both individually within a cluster and in the presence of uncoordinated multiple clusters of UAVs; (iii) 3D routing protocols that consider altitude, channel frequency and directionality, and residual energy of UAVs; (iv) Techniques to discover and maintain an FSO link between UAVs with minimal support from infrastructure or out-of-band RF channels; (v) Optimal multi-element full-duplex FSO transceiver design and tiling for 3D mobility; (vi) Low size, weight and power factor spherical and/or conformal transceiver design for UAVs; and (vii) Prototype of an experimental UAV-based D2D communications system to demonstrate the feasibility of UAV-based 3D mesh networking and assess the effectiveness of the proposed mechanisms.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.