2012 4th International Conference on Intelligent Human-Machine Systems and Cybernetics

The Design of Data Link for Multi-UAVs

Jian Chen, Qing Fei, Qingbo Geng

School of Automation
Beijing Institute of Technology
Beijing, P.R.China
Email: janicheers716@163.com, feiqing@bit.edu.cn, kingboy@bit.edu.cn

Abstract—Data link is an important part of unmanned aerial

vehicles system. The key of design of data link for multi-UAVs A. The characteristics of transmission
is the effective use and control of the transport channel. Firstly, UAV data link can be divided into uplink and downlink.
an analysis is given on the link characteristics between the The uplink is used to transmit the control information from
GCS and the UAV. Secondly, in order to reduce conflict in the GCS to the UAV, such as flight parameters, waypoints
multi-UAVs transmission, we realize the polling and broadcast information, and command instruction. The downlink is used
scheme through redesigning the control protocol and message to transmit the information from the UAV to the GCS,
protocol on the basis of former data link. Lastly, some including status data, sensor data, and graphic image data. In
comparative data on multi-UAVs communication is given to general, the UAV is controlled mainly through the onboard
show improvement of data link for multi-UAVs. autopilot, with the GCS being used in monitoring the flight
status and handling emergency. This, especially for the case
Keywords-multi-UAVs; transmission conflict; transport
channel; polling scheme
of multi-UAVs communication, leads to the asymmetric
transmission, i.e., the amount of data transmitted in the
downlink channel is much larger than that in the uplink
I. INTRODUCTION channel [2]. The following Table I, which shows the
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is a power-driven, comparison of data traffic between uplink and downlink of
radio-controlled or autonomous process control, unpiloted fixed-wing UAV at one test flight, is presented to illustrate
and reusable aircraft. In recent years, with the increasing this asymmetry.
attention and the huge investment of the various countries on But it is just a comparison for one-to-one transmission,
their applications, technology on UAVs has been developing and when the system is extended to multi-UAVs, the degree
rapidly. And a number of small-scale UAVs have been used of asymmetry of transmission will increase linearly by
in some civil fields such as geologic exploration, search, simple estimation of the scale. In practical application of
rescue and communications relay, etc. Due to Applications multi-UAVs data link, not only the transmission between the
for different purposes, requirements of each UAV are GCS and UAVs is included, but also the broadcast
different. For example, reconnaissance aircrafts focus on transmission and data exchange between UAVs are
system stability, precise control, communications security established to realize the cluster control and cooperative
and others performance; a rescue plane needs to have a long- control.
distance sailing with a larger load capacity; a vehicle for
detecting pays more attention to the electromagnetic TABLE I. THE AMOUNT OF DATA IN UPLINK & DOWNLINK CHANNEL
compatibility of each sensor. But for any UAV, it is
consistent with the requirements of the system’s security,
Uplink: about 21bytes/sec Downlink: about 349 bytes/sec
stability and reliability. There are many factors affecting
them and the data link of UAV is one of the main aspects [1]. Packet Bytes Operating Packet Bytes Operation
name count frequency name count frequency
This paper put forward a design of data link for multi-
UAVs applied to aeromagnetic exploration, to solve the Heart 10 2Hz Status 99 2Hz
transmission conflict in the actual flight. Control 78 5min/time Return for 78 5min/time
parameters parameters
II. UAV DATA LINK Waypoints 31 10min/time Return for 31 10min/time
UAV data link is a system of monitoring-control and waypoints
information transmission. Generally, it consists of the link Control 8~20 1min/time Return for 8~20 1min/time
protocol, the transport channel and the message protocol [1]. command command
It is designed to achieve real-time information exchange --- --- --- Sensor 150 1Hz
between the sensors, the ground control station (GCS) and data
the UAV as well as to handle the information from flying
scene situation, command control and mission control.

978-0-7695-4721-3/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE 106

DOI 10.1109/IHMSC.2012.32
B. Transport Channel
The UAV transmission channel consists of two parts: the
data terminal equipment (DTE) and the wireless channel.
DTE, composed by modem, network controllers and
cryptographic equipment, is the fundamental but essential
unit of the data link. The operating frequencies of data link
are usually in HF, VHF, UHF, L, S, C, and K band, and the
choice of frequency depends on its entrusted mission and
technology system [3].
The radio modem is the most common DTE in the small
civilian UAV. It embodies the function of radio
transmission, digital modulation and error correction,
provides serial transmission with the rate between 9600bps
and 19200bps, as well as supports half-duplex or full-duplex
communication. In our project, the Xtend–PKG radio
modem, with its operating frequency between 902MHz and
930MHz, and its maximum outdoor transmission distance of
22 kilometers, is selected as the DTEs. This UHF radio
equipment can meet the requirements of the UAV system of
aeromagnetic exploration.
C. Conflict in multi-UAVs data link transmission
With the ever-increasing requirement of the application
of UAV, the multi-UAVs system is becoming more and
more popular, since it can not only make full use of
communication equipments, GCS and other resources, but
also perform the aero mission more efficiently with multi-
UAVs’ ability to work together. However, multi-UAVs data
link is not a simple extension of the single-UAV data link.
Taking fixed-wing UAV system in our project for example,
under the precondition of maintaining the initial link protocol
as well as the use of radio modem, data packet dropout may
take place when several UAVs sent packets to the GCS. Due
to the lack of timing control, data collision may occur when
signal from different DTEs reach the GCS simultaneously
[4]. This data collision, which results in data packet dropout,
may deteriorate the system’s performance severely.
III. THE DESIGN OF DATA LINK FOR MULTI-UAVS
Therefore, it is of great significance to deal with the
transmission conflict of multi-DTEs to satisfy the
transmission requirements of multi-UAVs systems. Based
upon the three elements of the data link, improvement can be
made both in the link protocol and message protocol.
A. Polling Scheme
The commonly used method for avoiding transmission
conflict is to adopt multiplexing such as the frequency
division multiplexing (FDM) and the time division
multiplexing (TDM) in the physical layer. This, however,
means that the primary communication equipments for the
GCS and UAVs are no longer applicable. According to the
OSI reference model, appropriate transmission protocol at
the transmission layer can also guarantee the control of data
transmission, which can be realized by programming. In this
paper, polling scheme is incorporated in the transmission
layer (shown in Fig. 1), which is aimed at making full use the
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Figure 1. Polling schematic
present hardware system and avoiding excessive
modification to them.
In the whole multi-UAV system, the GCS, responsible
for the transmission order of each unit (UAV), and the real-
time status monitoring of each unit, is the only network
control station. In one same network, each UAV with a
unique address ID shares the same transmission frequency.
As soon as the communication link of the system is
established, the GCS initializes the address table and,
accordingly, sends polling message to UAVs at a fixed time
slot, about 100 milliseconds (ms). The message includes an
address ID of target UAV. After receiving it, the target UAV
can send message in 100ms. Firstly, it will send its status
packet to the GCS; secondly, it could send message to other
UAVs if needed, and this message must be sent to the GCS
as well for record. The GCS or UAV which has received
message will send acknowledge message immediately.
In practice, the status information of the UAV autopilot
is updated every 20ms, and the waiting time of returning
status packet is no more than 30ms. If it does not receive the
ACK message within 30ms after sending message, the UAV
will retransmit. In the time interval of 100ms, a UAV can
retransmit message once. After one polling period, the GCS
will inquire the next UAV in address table, and the next
target UAV completes the messaging in the same way. After
the address table is traversed, a new round of circulation
starts.
B. Realization of Broadcasting
When the GCS broadcasts uniform message to all UAVs,
it will repeat the message via broadcast address in 200ms. In
this case, all of the UAVs can receive message without
returning ACK message. And the GCS will restore to the
polling state after the 200ms broadcast time.
Before a UAV broadcasts message to others, it must
apply to the GCS for permission firstly. After receiving the
message of application, the GCS, on the one hand will stop
polling, on the other hand will return an allowed message to
the applicant (shown in Fig.2). After receiving the message,
 1byte 1byte 0~255bytes 2bytes

IV. COMMUNICATION EXPERIMENTS FOR MULTI-

UAVS

A. Experimental Conditions
Three autopilots, each of which connected with a Xtend-
PKG radio modem (emission power: 5W, frequency:
900MHz), were placed respectively in the position from the
GCS 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, with no tall
obstructions. For the convenience of test, a test packet was
customized based on message protocol, and the packet size is
100 bytes and each byte of the data segment equaled local ID
of the UAV, which would be sent from UAVs to the GCS.
And the GCS could record the packets from each UAV.
B. Experimental Result
Figure 2. Process of Broadcast Application Non-polling Test:
Each UAV automatically sends the test packet to the
GCS at intervals of 300ms. The following result (see Fig.3)
the UAV repeats sending broadcast message to all units in is a record of the about 2000 sets of test packets from
200ms. The GCS will send stop-message to forbid the unit autopilots.
broadcasting when the period of broadcast is over, and the The result shows that, without the polling scheme, a unit
network is recovered to the state of polling. is closer to the GCS, its reception is better and as the
C. Message Protocol distance increases, and the packet loss ratio will become
higher to varying degrees.
Message is the basic information unit for the interaction
Polling Test:
between the UAV and the GCS. And the message protocol
The polling interval of the GCS is 100 milliseconds.
provides for the practical significance of these information
When receiving a polling message, the autopilot will return a
units and exchange details. The following (see Table II) is
test message. The following result (see Fig.4) is a record of
the message format of message protocol.
the about 2000 sets of test packets from autopilots.
Net ID, indicates the network where the work unit is
After adding polling scheme to the link, the loss ratio of
located for distinguishing between different work groups.
UAVs decrease significantly, basically controlled at below
Local ID, indicates local address of the work unit. Each
0.5%, and there is no obvious gap between each unit. It
work unit is assigned a unique local ID.
shows that the polling control can effectively improve the
Remote ID, indicates the address of the target unit which
data link performance of multi-UAVs communication.
message is sent to. A value of 0xFF represents broadcast
address.
Serial number, is used to distinguish the sequence of
packets and calculate the number of packet loss, from 0 to
99.
Message ID, identifies the type of message and data
structure of the data segment.
Message Length, indicates the byte length of data
segment, from 0 to 0xFF.
Encoder type, indicates encryption mode of data
segment. A value of 0x00 represents no encryption
processing with data segment.
Data segment, indicates the data content of the message,
whose length is determined by the message ID.
Check code, is to correct the error in wireless
transmission. The CRC check is the default choice.

TABLE II. MESSAGE FORMAT

Net ID Local ID Remote ID Serial number Message ID
1byte 1byte 1byte 1byte 1byte

Message Length Encoder type Data segment Check code

Figure 3. Record of non-polling test

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 requirements. Because of lack of transmission control in
primary data link, it may cause transmission conflict in
multi-UAVs communication, and results in the loss of
packets sent from the UAV to the GCS. According to
improvement of the link protocol and message protocol, the
loss ratio of packets in multi-UAVs data link transmission is
reduced effectively, and the design of the data link can meet
the requirements of multi-UAVs communication.

REFERENCES
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Figure 4. Record of polling test [5] XU Xiaohan, TANG Xiaobei and ZHOU Jian, “Application of
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V. CONCLUSION pp. 25-29.

The UAV data link is not an isolated system and its

design must be based on the practical application

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