UAV Aided Data Collection for Wildlife Monitoring using Cache-enabled Mobile Ad-hoc Wireless Sensor Nodes

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted data collection is not a new concept and has been used in various mobile ad hoc networks. In this paper, we propose a caching assisted scheme alternative to routing in MANETs for the purpose of wildlife monitoring. Rather than deploying a routing protocol, data is collected and transported to and from a base station using a UAV. Although some literature exists on such an approach, we propose the use of intermediate caching between the mobile nodes and compare it to a baseline scenario where no caching is used. The paper puts forward our communication design where we have simulated the movement of multiple mobile sensor nodes in a field that move according to the Levy walk model imitating wildlife animal foraging and a UAV that makes regular trips across the field to collect data from them. The unmanned aerial vehicle can collect data not only from the current node it is communicating with but also data of other nodes that this node came into contact with. Simulations show that exchanging cached data is highly advantages as the drone can indirectly communicate with many more mobile nodes.

@article{Chaudhry2021,
  title     = {UAV Aided Data Collection for Wildlife Monitoring using Cache-enabled Mobile Ad-hoc Wireless Sensor Nodes},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {12},
  number    = {10},
  year      = {2021},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Umair B. Chaudhry and Chris I. Phillips},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2021.0121002},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2021.0121002}
}