Data collection using unmanned aerial vehicles and a delay-Tolerant network

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are widely used in low-energy consump-tion and dispersed monitoring applications. In this context, a common issue in WSNs corresponds to connectivity in low-density networks. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based data collection is a promising solution for data transfer to tackle this challenge. This work proposes and evaluates a delay-tolerant network (DTN) for data transmission, where the transport mule is based on a UAV. The transmission throughput between the sensor node and the collector node (UAV) is evaluated in an environment with three different distances between the sensor node and the UAV: 0 m (land), 3 m, and 6 m. The results show that the transmission takes less time when the UAV is on land, while the transmission time increases with greater distance.