A Database System Architecture for Air-to-Ground UAS Link Characterization

This paper describes work to create an unmanned aerial system (UAS) testbed, built on commercial off-the-shelf hardware and open source software components, as a platform for networking and spectrum related research. Of particular interest is characterization of (low altitude) air-ground wireless links between an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a ground node, for which little prior data is available. UAVs are mounted with software defined radios (SDR) capable of transmitting IEEE 802.11 packets to a ground node. Multiple static tests are executed to collect data in different scenarios characterizing the dependence of link quality on wireless parameters and physical parameters such as aircraft altitude and distance. A major contribution of this work is the creation of a public database that will enable new propagation models using this data, and in turn will drive more accurate UAV network simulations.