Network Analysis of Connectivity Optimized Multi-UAV Path Planners*

Multi-UAV systems are considered for many applications, where the UAVs work together as data collection and/or delivery nodes. Therefore, many recent works propose path planning algorithms that consider connectivity as a constraint or optimization objective. However, in most works topological connectivity is targeted or average network performance is optimized. On the other hand, network simulators are used to analyze higher layer protocols for UAV networks with generally randomized or sweeplike mobility. In this work, we analyze the network performance of several connectivity-optimized multi-UAV path planners. We analyze jointly optimized as well as relay assisted UAV networks. Our results show that topologically connected multi-UAV paths do not necessarily lead to acceptable network performance in terms of packet delivery rates and throughput. Mobile relay assisted scenarios perform as well as static relay scenarios with less than half the number of relay nodes. Jointly optimized schemes perform well with low number of UAVs when the transmission ranges are high or the number of nodes is low, where hub nodes are less likely to occur.