GeoUAVs: A new geocast routing protocol for fleet of UAVs

Abstract Routing in cooperative UAVs networks is a challenging task due to mobility of nodes, dynamically changing topology and three-dimensional (3D) movement. In this work, we study the fleet routing problem in FANET, which aims at delivering data to a specific group of mobile drones identified by their geographical location. Although many fleet routing protocols have been proposed, only partial inherent constraints of FANET (such as mobility, 3D movement and reliability) are taken into account. Therefore, we propose a new geocast routing protocol namely Geocast routing protocol for fleet of UAVs (GeoUAVs). This protocol aims at delivering information to a specific group of mobile UAVs identified by their geographical location. It takes into account the mobility of nodes, dynamic changing topology with 3D movement, and reliability. Simulations conducted in NS-3 simulator demonstrate that our proposal GeoUAVs outperforms AntHocNet and BeeAdHoc protocols by reducing the average delay by more than to 61% and increasing both the packet delivery ratio and throughput.