Integration of software defined radio on an unmanned aerial vehicle

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides an overview of “Integration of software defined radio on an
unmanned aerial vehicle.” Also describes the advantages, disadvantages, application, and
reference required for this report.

1.1 General Introduction

Today, almost every person owns a cell phone, enabling worldwide
communications, exploration, and learning. Having these abilities at the tip of their fingers,
people find the world more open and in reach than before. Current technologies enable easy
monitoring of people’s migrations through urban areas and everyday life. But the safe zone
stops with the cellular signal. Many people get lost, without the proper tools and knowledge
to find their way back. With the help of UAVs and SDRs, acquiring location proves to be
a much more effective and easier task. The goal of the ongoing project is to integrate an
SDR with a UAV and create a platform for radio (cellular) based search and rescue,
migration monitoring and border control.
Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, or drones) enable a variety of
applications. The UAV networking extends the capacity of single UAV, and the
collaboration of multiple UAVs makes it possible to operate multiple types of missions in
parallel. Farmers leverage UAV networking to control multiple UAVs, which carry
multiple spectrum and high-resolution cameras, to capture the distribution of the nutrition
of crops. The farmers analyse the acquired images to check the growth of the crops and
make decisions to cure the crops in sick. After that, the UAVs carry different devices to
spray specific nutrition or pesticide to the sick crops. Police leverage the UAV fleet with
high-resolution cameras to keep public safety and transportation management. Meanwhile,
the UAV fleets could carry networking devices to form temporary communication links,
and to provide temporal communication services for timely disaster warnings, assist in
rescue and recovery operations. Firefighters could benefit from the UAV fleet with high-
resolution cameras to inspect the fire potentials on a large scale. Each UAV could carry
different fire extinguishers to provide aid when the fire is observed in its range. Electric
workers could implement the UAV fleet to inspect the power lines. The UAV in the fleet
could capture high-resolution images, and transfer the peers’ and its data to the ground

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 Integration of software defined radio on an unmanned aerial vehicle

stations to enable workers to analyse the status of the power line without risking the safety
of the personnel involved.
UAV networking plays a vital role in the improvement of multiple UAVs’
performance. The development of UAV networking has significant effects on the evolving
of UAVs. However, the unique characteristics make UAV networking different from other
wireless networks. The topology of UAV networking persists fluid when nodes and links
change. Also, the limitation of power could not allow a UAV to finish multiple missions
continuously, and UAVs keep fast movement in most scenarios which could cause a big
difference in space when a small error exists in the calculation of the control system. Thus,
the frequency and the speed of nodes updating in positions also have a significant effect on
the performance of UAV networking. The fluid topology, the vanishing nodes, and finicky
links challenge researchers to go beyond the normal networks.
Topology is the backbone of networking. The stability and efficiency of topology
control strategies could improve the capacity and stability of UAV networking. Some
researchers tried to leverage adaptive algorithms to control the topology of UAV
networking. The simulation results in show that the adaptive algorithms for topology and
positions optimization could enhance the connectivity of UAV networking 110%. To meet
the requirement of dynamic and real-time, a small world network model is presented in,
they implemented the ant colony to optimize the topology of the network to realize real-
time data transmission. However, they could not keep stable in the high frequency of
topology changing. With the prediction of the topology changing, the research in integrates
particle swarm optimization and Kalman filtering with intermittent observations to predict
the topology changes and minimize the network link loss rate. Another work in tracks the
movement of UAVs to predict the networking changes and then updates network topology
to reduce the power consumption on communication.
Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a radio communication system that is designed
to provide flexibility and adaptability in radio communication by using software to
configure the radio. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming increasingly popular
due to their versatile nature in various industries such as military, agriculture, and
surveillance. Integrating SDR into UAVs can provide a range of benefits, including
enhanced communication capabilities and the ability to transmit and receive data.
The integration of SDR on a UAV involves equipping the aircraft with a radio
transceiver that can communicate with other SDR-enabled devices on the ground. The SDR

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system operates by using a programmable baseband processor, which allows for the
configuration of the radio frequency to match the requirements of the communication
protocol. There are several advantages to integrating SDR with UAVs. Firstly, SDR
enables UAVs to communicate with different communication protocols and frequency
bands, which makes them more versatile in various applications. Secondly, SDR provides
UAVs with a more secure and reliable communication system, which is particularly
important in military and surveillance operations. Thirdly, SDR-equipped UAVs can also
transmit and receive data, making them useful in applications such as environmental
monitoring and search and rescue operations. In addition, the use of SDR on UAVs can
provide a cost-effective solution compared to traditional radio communication systems.
The ability to program the radio frequency also allows for the easy upgrade and
modification of the communication system, making it more adaptable to changing
requirements.

1.2 SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO

A Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a radio communication system that employs

reconfigurable software-based components for processing and conversion of digital signals.
Unlike traditional radio communication systems, these radio devices are highly flexible and
versatile. This is an emerging technology used to connect our ever-increasing wireless
world.
As shown in Figure 1 below, a typical SDR system consists of an analog front-end
and a digital back-end. The analog front-end handles the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx)
functions of a radio communication system. The highest bandwidth SDR platforms are
designed to operate over a broad range of frequencies; usually near DC-18 GHz.
Whereas the front-end of an SDR system handles signals in the analog domain, the
back-end processes signals in the digital domain. An analog-to-digital converter
(ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) are used to convert signals from one
domain to the other. The digital back-end features a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)
and utilizes reconfigurable logic gates for different functions. This FPGA has various
onboard digital processing capabilities including modulation, demodulation, up
conversion, and down conversion. The reconfigurability of this digital back-end allows new
algorithms and protocols to be implemented easily and without modifying the existing
hardware.

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The flexibility of the SDRs make them a suitable choice for a broad array of
markets. This includes various mission critical applications such as radar, test and
measurement, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), global navigation satellite system
(GNSS), low latency links and spectrum and monitoring.

Fig 1: This is a simplified block diagram of a software defined radio system.

The basic concept of the SDR software radio is that the radio can be totally
configured or defined by the software so that a common platform can be used across a
number of areas and the software used to change the configuration of the radio for the
function required at a given time. There is also the possibility that it can then be re-
configured as upgrades to standards arrive, or if it is required to meet another role, or if the
scope of its operation is changed
The architecture of a typical SDR platform consists of the following boards: power,
digital, time, receive (Rx) and transmit (Tx) modules. The boards are connected using high
speed cables to ensure fast transfer of data from one board to another. The function of the
power board is to supply power to the daughter boards of an SDR system.
The clock distribution network of a typical SDR platform is centred on its time
board. This module provides a clean and stable clock to the modules of an SDR system.
For the Crimson TNG SDR platform manufactured by Per Vices, the time board uses
an oven-controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO) as a source for its internal reference clock.
This reference source provides an accurate and stable (5 ppb) 10 MHz signal. This high
performance SDR platform is also engineered to support an external reference clock.
The receive (Rx) board of an SDR platform consists of multiple independent receive
channels. Each receive channel is capable of performing the receive functions and handles
signals in the analog domain. Analog signals from the Rx board are channelled to an
independent chain consisting of amplifiers, downconverters, various filters, and an ADC

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for conversion to digital domain. Just like the receive (Rx) board, the transmit (Tx) board
features multiple independent transmit channels. Each Tx channel is capable of performing
transmit functions and sends signals in analog format from the DAC, upconverter, filter
and amplification stages. The transmit and receive chains of an SDR system are as shown
in Figure 2.

Fig 2: This is a high-level overview of the various components within Receive (Rx) and
transmit (Tx) chains of an SDR system

1.3 UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is
an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs were originally
developed through the twentieth century for military missions too "dull, dirty, or dangerous
“for humans, and by the twenty-first, they had become essential assets to most militaries.
As control technologies improved and costs fell, their use expanded to many non-military
applications. These include aerial photography, precision agriculture, forest fire
monitoring, river monitoring, environmental monitoring, policing and surveillance,
infrastructure inspections, smuggling, product deliveries, entertainment, and drone racing.
The term drone has been used from the early days of aviation, being applied to
remotely-flown target aircraft used for practice firing of a battleship's guns, such as the
1920s Fairey Queen and 1930s de Havilland Queen Bee. Later examples included

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 Integration of software defined radio on an unmanned aerial vehicle

the Airspeed Queen Wasp and Miles Queen Martinet, before ultimate replacement by
the GAF Jindivik. The term remains in common use. In addition to the software,
autonomous drones also employ a host of advanced technologies that allow them to carry
out their missions without human intervention, such as cloud computing, computer vision,
artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and thermal sensors. For
recreational uses, an aerial photography drone is an aircraft that has first-person video,
autonomous capabilities, or both.
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is defined as a "powered, aerial vehicle that
does not carry a human operator, uses aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly
autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry a
lethal or nonlethal payload". UAV is a term that is commonly applied to military use cases.
Missiles with warheads are not considered UAVs because the vehicle itself is a munition.
Also, the relation of UAVs to remote controlled model aircraft is unclear, UAVs may or
may not include remote-controlled model aircraft. Some jurisdictions base their definition
on size or weight; however, the US FAA defines any uncrewed flying craft as a UAV
regardless of size. A similar term is remotely piloted aerial vehicle (RPAV).
UAVs or RPAVs can also be seen as a component of an unmanned aircraft
system (UAS), which also includes a ground-based controller and a system of
communications with the aircraft. The term UAS was adopted by the United States
Department of Defence (DoD) and the United States Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) in 2005 according to their Unmanned Aircraft System Roadmap
2005–2030. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the British Civil
Aviation Authority adopted this term, also used in the European Union's Single-European-
Sky (SES) Air-Traffic-Management (ATM) Research (SESAR Joint Undertaking)
roadmap for 2020. This term emphasizes the importance of elements other than the aircraft.
It includes elements such as ground control stations, data links and other support
equipment. Similar terms are unmanned-aircraft vehicle system (UAVS) and remotely
piloted aircraft system (RPAS). Many similar terms are in use. Under new regulations
which came into effect 1 June 2019, the term RPAS has been adopted by the Canadian
Government to mean "a set of configurable elements consisting of a remotely piloted
aircraft, its control station, the command-and-control links and any other system elements
required during flight operation".

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CHAPTER 2
INTEGRATION
2.1 PROCESS OF INTEGRATION
The process of integration combines two separately developed systems into one.
SDR is a hardware kit which is controlled by software, defining radio parameters and mode
of operation. A full radio stack requires additional components to operate. Besides the radio
hardware, a single board (compact) computer is required to power the radio and process
the incoming and outgoing information. Additionally, antennas with the appropriate
characteristics are used, to receive and transmit radio signals.
UAVs are a great platform for various tasks. Today, they can be found operating for
commercial, scientific, and military purposes. To ensure versatility and ensure enough
margin in operating range suitable for future research, we needed to build a specifically
designed UAV. It is propelled by twelve engines and propellers (dodeca-copter), powered
by a combination of two or four batteries, and controlled manually by the pilot using the
remote controller or autonomously by the onboard flight controller.

2.2 DESIGN OF THE UAV

For scientific and research purposes and projects, various UAV platforms can be
found operating today and most researchers utilize them as a multipurpose tools. For the
specific purpose of integrating an SDR and a directional antenna, we had to build a system
that satisfies certain requirements using parts acquired from various suppliers. Difficulties
that had to be overthrown were first-time usage of twelve motor configuration, which
caused increased power consumption, electromagnetic interference, mechanical durability,
and overall flight endurance. Besides off-the-shelf components, there were some
components requiring custom manufacturing. These components were designed by the
project team members and later printed using 3D printers.

Figure 1 shows a computer-assisted design (CAD) drawing for the inner part of the
UAV. The process of designing new parts required that the manufactured parts also needed
to be drawn. The following figure presents the final look of newly designed parts. The total
mass of the UAV is 12 kg, making it require around 50 A of current from the battery at 22.2
V, a totally 1110 W, only for hovering. Custom-designed parts need to ensure sturdy and
strong mechanical connections regarding the operational conditions of the UAV. These

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conditions assume large mechanical loads due to weight and acceleration, vibrations, wind
and wind gusts, humidity, and high temperatures.

Fig 3: CAD drawing of the UAV

Figure 2 shows all electrical connections of the UAV. The UAV consists of twelve
brushless direct current motors (ENG), twelve engine speed controllers (ESC), a power
distribution unit (PDU), a battery eliminator circuit (BEC) adjusting the battery voltage
level for the flight controller (FCL), global navigation satellite system (GNSS), and radio
control wireless receiver (TRX). Red lines represent positive leads for power connection,
black lines represent negative leads for power connection, blue lines are signal wires, and
green lines are power lines from engine speed controllers to the engines.

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Fig 4: Electrical schematic of the UAV

2.3 DESIGN OF THE SDR
Figure 3 (A) shows the used SDR hardware, Limes from Lime Microsystems. This
radio hardware was com-bined with the rest of the required components before the
integration with the UAV.
Figure 3 (B) shows the chosen computer for onboard signal processing. It should
enable detection of the cellular signal in the observed part of the spectrum and bidirectional
communication with the ground station.

Fig 5: (A) SDR hardware

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Fig 5: (B) Single board (compact) computer

Figure 4 shows all the necessary equipment for the SDR system. A single board
computer (SBC) is a compact computer used for signal processing while the software-
defined radio (SDR) converts information into a desirable format suitable for transmission.
The omnidirectional antenna (OM) transmits and receives radio signals equally in all
directions while the Directional antenna (DA) has a bias in transmitting and receiving
towards a certain direction which is determined by the antenna design. Antennas used for
signal detection and detection of the bearing to the source of the signal need to be
directional, and omnidirectional antennas are used for communication with the ground
station. Both, single board computer and gimbal, are powered by a DC buck, which is a
device designed to lower the voltage of the direct current power supply, in this case, a
battery. The required voltage for the computer is 19 V, while the gimbal requires 16 V.

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Fig 6: Electrical connections of the SDR system

2.4 INTEGRATION OF SYSTEMS

The chosen computer for this setup is Udoo Bolt V8 from Udoo Computers. For
both the radio hardware and the computer, the power supply is replaced by a voltage
regulator circuit connected to the UAV battery stack, resulting in reduced endurance of the
integrated system. To protect and mount all the equipment, special holders and casings
were modelled in CAD software and later printed on a 3D printer in plastic materials. Figure
5 (A) and Figure 5 (B) show the CAD design of casings for the radio hardware and
computer.

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Fig 7: CAD design of (A) Single board computer case

Fig 7: CAD design of (B) SDR case

Designed casings enable stacking of the components and their interconnectivity, as

the radio hardware needs to be connected to the computer by a universal serial bus (USB)
3.0. Figure 6 (A) shows the designed mounting system for the directional antenna on the
gimbal, enabling stabilization and independent movement.

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Fig 8: (A) Directional antenna brace for a gimbal

Figure 7 shows the final assembly of the UAV with the SDR, while the electrical
schematic of the UAV and SDR. This configuration can provide a live localization of
received signals. Future tests on signal reception will help in the development of algorithms
for signal localization.

Fig 9: Final assembly

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CHAPTER 3
RELATED WORK
3.1 REINFORCEMENT LEARNING
The evolving of reinforcement learning has been employed in many fields, and the
topology control approaches as the core of UAV networking. Moreover, it is vital for
improving the performance of UAV fleets. In this section, we are to present the related
work of reinforcement learning and topology of UAV Networking.
Reinforcement Learning (RL) is an area of machine learning which concerns how
to control software agents in an environment to maximize cumulative reward. RL is
considered as one of three paradigms of machine learning, alongside supervised learning
and unsupervised learning. Comparing with supervised learning and unsupervised learning,
the RL is more suitable for solving the problem with large state spaces and could provide
more efficient and optimal decisions. Based on these benefits of RL, many researchers in
the UAV field tried to implement RL to improve the performance of UAV networking.
Currently, most research works focus on navigation and networking.

3.2 NAVIGATION
In regular scenarios, RL is implemented to optimize the path planning to improve
the communication performance of the UAV networking. Vision information is adopted
into RL as input to train the controller to recognize the obstacles and targets to improve the
flexibility of flight. The controller could adjust its trajectory to avoid the collision and
improve the efficiency of flight. Apart from the vision-based approaches, the RL based
collaboration approach also could enhance the performance of the collision avoidance, each
UAV as agent leverages RL to optimize the position control between multiple UAVs to
improve the geometry accuracy of location and improve the control accuracy of UAVs.
The power efficiency is vital to the UAV fleet. The UAV as an agent integrates the
RL, and the reward is the flight time to improve the power utility of the UAV fleet in each
UAV. This approach reduced the power consumption on the flight and improved the
communication coverage of UAV networking. In regular scenarios, these implementations
of RL on UAV could improve the performance of the UAV. However, these approaches
still could not meet the requirement of large scale and complex environment.

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In large scale and complex scenarios, trajectory optimization is more important for
UAV networking. Before entering these scenarios, the RL enhanced sensing approaches
could assist the UAV in achieving dynamic trajectory via cellular network, and RL based
backhaul in real-time could improve the performance of exploration in unknown scenarios.
At the same time, the integration of RL and an autonomous control system could improve
the surviving capacity of UAV networking significantly.

3.3 NETWORKING
Currently, UAV networking is mostly used to provide services for ground stations
or devices. Due to the unique flexibility of UAVs, the UAV could provide relay service for
the vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANET). RL based optimization approaches enable each
UAV in the fleet, offload the computational tasks to the ground nodes to improve the
efficiency and computational capacity of UAV. Based on the enhanced computational
resources, the UAV could increase the capability of the relay to provide more sufficient
network services for the ground mobile users. With the surge of user accessing,
conventional UAV networking could not provide enough accessing service. A deep RL
based frame is proposed to help the users on the ground to decide which accessing point to
connect, and to eliminate the burden of each UAV. Another work that focuses on improving
the energy efficient to improve each UAV communication coverage to increase the service
to users. However, UAV also consumes the spectrum of cellular networking when it
provides services to mobile users.
Multiple agents-based RL optimization approach is proposed to improve the
spectrum efficiency between UAVs and mobile users and to improve the efficiency and
computational capacity of UAV. The communication interference exists in UAV
networking commonly, which has severe effects on the reliability, efficiency, and
transmission rate of the communication link. An RL based interference management
approach is proposed to eliminate the interference of cellular-connected UAV networking.

3.4 THE TOPOLOGY OF UAV NETWORKING

The flexibility of UAV makes the topology of UAV networking different from the
VANET and Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET). Due to the combination of flexibility and
limitation of power, the UAV network could keep unchanged for a long time. The
prediction of the topology in measurement policy presents an approach to estimate the
changing trend of topology according to the movement and the position updating of UAVs.

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At the same time, the ground stations also could assess the reliability of the networking
according to the variation of the delay in UAV networking. Based on the predictions of
changing, some topology control approaches control the topology to improve the mission
operation of the UAV. The ground stations could Switch topology according to the
communication delay to improve the teleportation performance of UAV. Due to the time-
varying delay, the synchronization of control commands is a big challenge for the UAV
fleet. To improve the security and efficiency of the UAV fleet mission operation, in, a
consensus-based topology approach is proposed. Each UAV broadcasts its received
commands and timestamp and receives the peers’ results.
The majority of the results becomes the truth. After four stages, the whole UAV
networking could construct the consensus to updating the topology and eliminate the time
delay, similar work based on velocity consensus is presented in. Other approaches are
switching the topology of swarm UAV networking to solve the time-varying formation
tracking problem in direction and interaction, which could improve the reliability of UAV
networking according to relevant information of neighbouring UAVs. The topology of
UAV networking is vital to the implementation of UAVs.
The UAV fleets could adjust the topology to match the distribution of ground nodes
to charge so that the surviving time of the UAV fleets increased. The difference of the
mission operation in UAV fleet causes the surviving time is varying. Without rational
deployment and management, the replacement of the UAVs could impact the reliability
and efficiency of UAV networking. A distributed formation control is proposed in to
updating the topology to better the reliability and throughput of the UAV networking. In
extreme situations, the UAV networking is destroyed may cause throughput, delay,
transmission lost rate surge. A digraph-based approach is presented in to solve the issue
and the proving work showed that the topology control algorithm could keep the
performance of the UAV networking, although K UAV communication links are lost.

3.5 ARCHITECTURE OF UAV

One of the significant challenges of UAV networking is fluid topology. Due to the
limitation of power and flexibility of movement, the UAV could meet the loss of connection
and requirement of re-joining the network. If one member of the UAV fleet is going to be
out of power, the replacement one needs to take off to make up the absence to keep the
reliability and capability of the UAV Networking. In this section, we present our approach

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to leverage the reinforcement learning to enhance the performance of fluid topology of

UAV networking.
As the Fig. 1 shows, the UAV (denoted as U1) with the red link is going to be out
of power which could not continue to operate the mission. Also, the replacement of UAV
(denoted as Ur) takes off from the landing area to follow the UAV fleet first. The U1 hands
over the links when the Ur reaches the position which is close to the location of U1. Before
the process of link handover, there is a duration that the Ur could not supply the leading
service and the topology of UAV networking which needs to change the topology to
eliminate the burden of networking on U1 and keep the reliability of networking.

The fluctuation exists in the duration of handover reduces the whole performance
of UAV networking, which may cause a large-scale connection loss in the process. Our
approach is that the UAVs transfer their statues and connections via the UAV networking
to the ground station. The ground stations receive this information and combine all UAV
status with mission operation to generate a better topology scheme to adjust each UAV
communication configuration. To realize the topology updating, the SDN could allow the
ground stations to control each UAV changes the connection to its peers and modify the
communication parameters to achieve better performance. However, UAV networking
belongs to wireless communication, and we leverage SDR as the physical layer to realize
the updating of the links of UAV networking physically. In the network layer, we propose
an approach to leverage SDN for routing. The ground stations generate the routing policies
and upload the control commands to the SDR equipment on the UAV to update the
topology and routing policies.
Each UAV is installed with SDR equipment which includes receiving and
transmitting functions. The updating workflow of UAV networking on the air is shown as
Fig. 2. The SDR receiver achieves the data, and then controller of UAV extracts the
information into connection modification and missions operation. UAVs would operate
relative movement according to the commands for missions. The connection modification
mainly focuses on communication reconfiguration, which allows the SDR equipment is
changing parameters and communication protocols updating.

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Fig 10: Architecture of UAV Networking Updating

Fig 11: The Workflow of UAV Networking Updating on the Air

The controller sends the configuration to the SDR controller, and the SDR controller
writes the communication channels and bandwidth into the relative register. At the same
time, the protocol that includes the packet protocol and routing protocol is written in the
SDR registers. After the configuration is set in the SDR registers, the SDR reboots to update
the connection links and broadcasts its device information in the updated channels via SDR
transmitter.
Due to the limitation of power and computational resource in UAV, it is hard for
the UAV fleet to generate the optimization of the topology. We load this task on the ground

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stations, which includes the topology generation and commands integration. The workflow
of the ground stations is shown as Fig. 3. The ground stations with SDR transceiver collect
the information that includes UAV status and performance assessment. The UAV status is
referenced for the performance assessment. The performance assessment evaluates each
UAV performance and generates parameters optimization to improve the completion of
mission operation. Different missions need different topology of UAV networking to
provide services for the UAV fleet, so each mission requirement is stored in the updating
mission requirement.
We feed the updating mission requirement, the status of each UAV extractions, and
performance assessment to the Reinforcement Learning generator and the generator
generates the optimized connection links. After generation of connection links, the
topology updating complies the connection information into topology to generate the
specific modifications to the related UAVs. At this step, the optimization generation is
finished, and then these optimizations need to be packaged into a data packet with
commands generations and sent to SDR transceiver. After transmitting these commands,
the SDR transceiver modifies the communication configurations to synchronize the
updating of UAV networking.
To get a better Reinforcement Learning generator, we combine the status of each
UAV and current UAV networking to reinforcement learning trainer, which is shown in
Fig. 4. The generator has discrete operations to set the connection links between UAVs to
maximize the bandwidth and channels and minimize power consumption. The combination
of the bandwidth, collision channels, and power consumption is considered as the rewards
to optimize this RL generator.

Fig 12: Workflow of Ground Station

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Fig 13: Reinforcement Training Process

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CHAPTER 4
COMPARISION OF UAV
Table 1. Comparison between unmanned aerial vehicle and manned aerial
vehicle

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Manned Aerial Vehicles

(UAVs)

Pilot No human pilot on board Human pilot on board

Operation Remote control or autonomous Direct control

Safety Lower risk to human life Higher risk to human life

Endurance Longer flight time possible Limited by pilot fatigue and

aircraft limitations

Payload Can carry a variety of payloads Limited by aircraft size and

weight

Cost Generally lower cost Higher cost

Maintenance May require specialized Maintenance can be performed

maintenance by trained personnel

Flexibility Can operate in hazardous or Limited by human pilot

inaccessible environments capabilities and safety concerns

Applications Surveillance, reconnaissance, Air transportation, military

mapping, scientific research, operations, commercial aviation,
delivery, and more and more

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CHAPTER 5
ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES & APPLICATION
4.1 ADVANTAGES
➢ Flexibility:
SDR allows for the ability to reconfigure the radio to support different
communication protocols, frequencies, and bandwidths, making it highly adaptable
to different scenarios and environments.
➢ Improved Communication:
SDR allows for better communication capabilities as it can support multiple
frequencies, modes, and protocols. This can improve communication range,
reliability, and security.
➢ Reduced weight:
An SDR system can be implemented using software, which reduces the need
for hardware components, thus reducing weight on the UAV.
➢ Cost-effective:
Since SDR can be implemented using software, it is more cost-effective than
traditional radio systems that require dedicated hardware.
➢ Increased situational awareness:
SDR systems can provide real-time situational awareness by allowing UAV
operators to monitor multiple communication channels simultaneously. This can be
useful in detecting and identifying threats, as well as coordinating with other UAVs
or ground teams.
➢ Improved data collection:
SDR can support a wide range of data collection and processing capabilities,
including video, audio, and sensor data. This can help in gathering more
comprehensive information for mission planning and decision-making.
➢ Increased operational range:
With the ability to switch between different communication protocols and
frequencies, SDR allows UAVs to operate across a wider range of distances and
environments, including urban and remote areas.

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 Integration of software defined radio on an unmanned aerial vehicle

➢ Enhanced security:
SDR systems can use advanced encryption and authentication methods to
ensure secure communication between the UAV and other platforms, reducing the
risk of interception or tampering.

4.2 DISADVANTAGES

➢ Increased weight and power consumption:

Adding an SDR to a UAV requires additional hardware, such as antennas,
radios, and processing units, which can increase the overall weight and power
consumption of the system. This can reduce the UAV's flight time and payload
capacity, and may require modifications to the UAV's power system.
➢ Complexity and cost:
SDR technology is complex and requires specialized knowledge to design
and integrate into a UAV system. This can increase the cost and time required to
develop and test the system, as well as the cost of the individual components.
➢ Interference and signal loss:
UAVs operate in a dynamic and often unpredictable radio frequency (RF)
environment, which can lead to interference and signal loss for SDR systems. This
can affect the reliability and performance of the system, and may require additional
measures, such as frequency hopping or error correction, to mitigate.
➢ Regulatory and legal issues:
SDR technology is subject to regulatory and legal restrictions, particularly
when it comes to the use of certain frequency bands or encryption methods. UAVs
that incorporate SDR technology may require additional permits or certifications,
which can add to the cost and complexity of the system.
➢ Security risks:
Because SDR systems are software-based, they are vulnerable to cyber-
attacks and hacking attempts. UAVs that incorporate SDR technology may be at
risk of unauthorized access or control, which can pose a threat to both the UAV
itself and any sensitive data or payloads it may carry.

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4.3 APPLICATION

➢ Communication:
SDR allows for flexible, programmable, and efficient communication
systems, enabling UAVs to communicate with other UAVs, ground stations, or
satellites. It can operate on a wide range of frequencies and modulation schemes,
making it suitable for various applications.
➢ Signal intelligence:
SDR can be used to intercept and analyse signals from other communication
systems. UAVs equipped with SDR can collect signals and transmit them to a
ground station for further analysis, providing valuable intelligence information.
➢ Navigation and positioning:
SDR can be used to receive and process signals from GPS, GLONASS, and
other navigation systems. This allows UAVs to accurately navigate and position
themselves, even in areas with poor or no GPS coverage.
➢ Electronic warfare:
SDR can be used to detect and counteract signals from other communication
systems. UAVs equipped with SDR can detect and locate enemy communication
systems and jam or disrupt their signals.

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CONCLUSION
In this Report, we proposed an approach to integrate SDR and SDN to enhance the
performance of UAV networking in the fluid topology. We leverage the SDR to build the
link layer, and we utilize the SDR to construct the SDN to manage the network layer to
improve the stability of the UAV network. Our evaluation shows that reinforcement
learning can improve the stability of the UAV network when there exists the absence of
UAVs or updating of the network. The response speed in this evaluation shows that
reinforcement learning can be implemented in a practical environment. In the future, we
will extend the evaluation into the various environment, and we will add continuous actions
smooth the performance of the UAV networking.

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