Poster: Reliable Data Collection in Challenged Networks using Unmanned Aircraft

Sensor data collection can be facilitated by radio nodes in unmanned aircraft. They can provide communication to large geographic areas and have high mobility. However, long distances and aircraft mobility may cause episodic connectivity or require data to be physically carried. Such challenged communication necessitates a delay-tolerant approach to networking. We designed and implemented a delay-tolerant network architecture for the sensor data collection problem that provides unicast and multicast connectivity across heterogeneous networks without requiring global knowledge. Our implementation utilizes a modular approach enabling unique networks to build on our testbed. We motivate our design choices, describe the implementation of a real-world testbed, and evaluate network performance using a novel DTN visualization tool.