Position-based Routing Protocol for Software-Defined Internet of Drones

Abstract

Recently applications that use a single drone are evolved into an Internet of drones (IoD) ecosystem. The IoD has a complex control as it needs to coordinate the drones in the airspace, which involves mobility and communication between them. It facilitates the IoD control if drones frequently report their positions to the control base, use well-defined airways to fly, and are managed through Software-Defined Internet of Drones (SDIoD). In the shared airspace, drones are expected to exchange messages with each other. In this work, we propose PSDIoD, a Position-based routing protocol for SDIoD, which has two versions. The first, called PSDIoD-SP (Shortest Path), considers the shortest path in the airways to select the routes. The second, called PSDIoD-EA (Energy-Aware), examines the radio power consumption estimated to choose the route. Due to nodes having a limited battery, power is a crucial factor in IoD. Both of which consider the knowledge of the position of drones to route packets. This work advances the state of the art by proposing efficient routing solutions that were developed in a suitable way for the IoD environment. The results show that PSDIoD versions are better in power consumption, packet delivery ratio, delay, and overhead when compared to a baseline protocol. Furthermore, PSDIoD-EA is approximately 9% more economical in terms of power consumption when compared to PSDIoD-SP.