Beyond Line-of-Sight range extension with OPAL using autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles

Communications survivability of mobile wireless segments in tactical military networks is and will be an enormous challenge in the present and future defence forces, which is vital to fulfill military missions in a timely manner. We have previously presented an autonomous system named OPAL, which uses distributed cooperative management solutions for enhancing communications survivability in volatile tactical networks, such as mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). This paper presents scenarios where OPAL is used to extend the range of a tactical military network using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). OPAL range extension is described and simulation results presented, followed by conclusion and an outline of further work.