UAV-Aided Cross-Layer Routing for MANETs

In this paper, we present UAV-aided Cross-Layer Routing Protocol (UCLR) that aims at improving the routing performance of a ground MANET network with aid from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The UAV is added to a connected backbone formed by a collection of designated nodes in order to combat link failures and wireless link effects detected at PHY/MAC layers before the routing table adapts to the changes. In the context of the UCLR protocol, we introduce a UAV-aided cross-layer routing scheme, an associated cross-layer routing metric, and a UAV load-balancing algorithm. We implement UCLR using Linux Quagga routing suite along with OSPF MANET Designated Routing (MDR) and demonstrate its performance improvements compared to the original MDR through emulation studies.