Dispatching and Management Methods for Communication of
UAV Swarm
Xiong Liu
National University of Defense Technology
Changsha, Hunan, China
+86 15274888658
1257840756xl@gmail.com
Yongbin Zhou Zhihong Liu
National University of Defense National University of Defense
Technology Technology
Changsha, Hunan, China Changsha, Hunan, China
+86 13517480091 +86 15575113697
yongbin@nudt.edu.cn
zhihong@nudt.edu.cn
ABSTRACT
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms will be the development
trend of civil and military application. Effective and reliable
communication is the requisite foundation of a UAV swarm
architecture. In this paper, aiming at the design of a
communication system of the UAV swarm, a multi-layer model of
network communication and messages management is put
forward. Then according to the model, a swarm communication
framework is implemented on the ROS platform as a
communication_node, in which scheduling algorithms and
messages management schemes are applied. Finally, the results
of experiments show that the communication_node meets the
requirements of swarm communications with unstable bandwidth
changes.
CCS Concepts
• CCS➝Software and its engineering➝Software organization
and properties➝Software system structures➝Software
architectures➝Layered systems.
Keywords
UAV swarm communication; management architecture; ROS
1. INTRODUCTION
With the development of autonomous technology and networked
communication technology for UAVs, the modes of UAV
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HP3C 2018, March 15–17, 2018, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
© 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-6337-2/18/03…$15.00
https://doi.org/10.1145/3195612.3195622
61
Dong Yin
National University of Defense Technology
Changsha, Hunan, China
+86 15616464855
yindong@nudt.edu.cn
Yueke Wang
National University of Defense
Technology
Changsha, Hunan, China
+86 13807318987
yueke@nudt.edu.cn
applications in war are also being developed. Most countries
attach increasing importance to the coordinated operation among
UAV swarms. In 2015, the United States launched a number of
low-cost UAV swarm research projects, such as a bulletin on the
"elves" project (DARPA-BAA-15-59) from DARPA and the US
Navy's Low-cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) project.
In 2016, The Jungle Wolf UAV was displayed at the Farnborough
Air Show. In 2017, China Electronics Technology Group
Corporation (CETC) unveiled its swarm technology, which
includes 119 UAVs. As the largest UAV swarm to date in the
world, it has broken the record maintained by the United States
[1][2]. The record continues to be broken.
Effective and reliable communication is the basis of swarm
technology, which helps to improve collaboration capability of
multiple agents. While some typical applications and
implementations of swarms are investigated, communication
technology requirements of UAV clusters can be concluded as
below:
I. Communication resource management [3]. The swarm
system should be allocated to limited channels automatically,
dynamically and quickly to all users of the system in order to
make the best use of channel and frequency resources to
communicate timely. In fact, due to the use of shared wireless
links with limited bandwidth and imperfect channel conditions,
wireless links are known to be prone to errors and failures. Now,
there are a lot of researches on bandwidth and channel conditions.
For example, Saleem.Y et al. propose the dynamic bandwidth
allocation using cognitive radio [4]. And Yifeng Zhou et al.
propose a model with the advantages of flexibility and simplicity,
which is suitable for modeling wireless channels in UAV
applications. In simulation, the model is able to simulate packet
dropouts with non-stationary error statistics [5].
II. Real-time communication. Through reducing the message
delay, ensure that the UAV in the high-speed movement can
correctly execute control commands. For example, Daniel Henkel
et al. propose the Delay-Tolerant network structure by using
special communication aircrafts to build mobile communication
links to reduce the delay and enhance communication system
stability [6].
III. Coordination of communication nodes. A UAV swarm has the devices,
advantage of multi-machine for searching, detection and attacking
by collaborating with others, and effectively improves the
survivability and overall combat capability of the UAVs. As WT
Luke Teacy et al. propose automatic detection of a multi-UAV
platform that uses multiple kinds of sensors to collect data from
multiple vantage points [7].
Based on the limited bandwidth and imperfect channel conditions
in UAV swarm communication, this paper mainly proposes a
communication node running in the ROS (Robot Operating
System) for messages scheduling and management. The sending
schedules for messages are firstly detailed, with the real-time
performance of messages taken into account. Then in the second
section, the multi-layer model of the swarm communication node
model is descripted. In the third section the implementation of the
communication node in the ROS environment is illustrated. In the
fourth section, experiments are adapted to the evaluation of design
performance. And in the final section, the conclusion and future
work are presented.

2. MULTI-LAYER MODEL OF SWARM Figure 1. Swarm communication node model.

COMMUNICATION NODE
At present, many researchers are interested in the swarm
communication architecture based on the OSI 7-layer model.
China's Southwest Institute of Electronic Technology proposes a
5-layer experimental network model for achieving that one
Ground Control Station (GCS) controls multi-UAVs by data links
[8]. The model consists of five layers, namely the physical layer,
data link layer, network layer, transport layer and application
layer. And Imad Jawhar et al, who work for Lebanon Midcomp
Research Center, add an intermediate layer containing a basic
UAV nodes framework between the application layer and the
transport layer to realize the UAV swarm network [9].
Considering the situations about: a) dynamic adaptation to
unstable and unpredictable wireless communications in a
complicated environment and b) the information requirements at
different steps of the mission, the swarm communication
architecture should focus on the management of messages for
each step, e.g., what kind of information is needed, and how to
schedule and dispatch the message sequence instantaneously.
Drawing on the DDS-based distributed information
communication structure, the multi-layer model for swarm
network communication node is designed. Meanwhile, QoS
policies for the wireless link status and topology of the
communication are presented.
such as the IP-based network, PTP and PMP transmission mode,
and Input/output message buffer. Different communication
devices are used to achieve air-ground communications between
UAV and GCS, as well as the construction of an inter link among
the UAVs.
2) Data classification and encapsulation layer
This layer is shown as ②in Figure 1. Communication in
UAV swarm is based on the MAVlink protocol. In the
uplink from the GCS to UAVs, messages are decapsulated.
Then the messages are classified by the ID of messages,
such as messages for the control module or algorithm
implementation module. In the downlink from UAVs to the
GCS, messages are encapsulated and sent.
3) Network routing management Layer
Shown as ③ in Figure 1. This module implements the
collection and update of routing, which supports either a
central network or a self-organizing network, such as adhoc
and mesh. In the central network, the central node includes
global routing information, and the end node only has the
routing information of neighboring nodes.
4) Link status monitoring layer

The construction of multi-layer model of swarm communication
node is shown in Figure 1. There are six layers in the design.
Layer ①manages communication devices and data caches. Then
layer ② is constructed for data encapsulation and decapsulation,
and messages classification. And layer ③ manages the network
route. In layer ④, different status of communication are obtained.
In layer ⑤ ,there are various sending policies for different
communication status. Through layer ⑥ ,the node exchanges
information with the host program.
This layer is shown as ④ in Figure 1. The status of
communication are obtained by analyzing relevant messages
from the GCS or other UAVs. And the status of
communication include transmission delay, transmission
rate, bandwidth information, etc. Then these communication
conditions are provided to the messages management layer
for achieving better communication by selecting the
corresponding sending strategies.
5) Messages Management Layer

1) Wireless link communication interface layer This layer is shown as ⑤ in Figure 1. According to mission
requirements, feedback information and dynamic conditions,
Shown as ① in Figure 1, this layer provides different policies for information distribution and delivery
communication interface with wireless transmission link are selected, e.g., arraying priorities for messages and fusing
special messages, etc. So as to maximize the use of channel
and frequency resources in view of fine communication
quality.

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 Figure 2. Framework of airborne communication.
6) Subscription and Publishing Management Layer nodes
which is obtained from GCS or the inter UAVs communication,
so as to realize the advantage of the cluster; c) the status of data
This layer is shown as ⑥ in Figure 1. The UAV system can link: through the analysis of the related plug-ins, the link status,
be seen as a distributed one due to a large number of sensors such as the delay of messages, are obtained as the basis for
as mounted. For the convenience of exchange of managing messages, so on.
information with the host program in a distributed system,
this module is designed for implementation so as to simplify Table 1. Layered airborne communication nodes
the process of registration, update and maintain the implementation
information of subscribers and publishers. Communication Realization
model of swarm
3. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ROS-
BASED UAV SWARM COMMUNICATION Wireless link The mavconn library for network port
communication or serial port and other communication
MODEL interface layer hardware
3.1 The Structure of Swarm Communication
Introducing the mavlink protocol, this
Node in the ROS layer provides for messages
The Robot Operating System (ROS) provides a distributed Data classification encapsulation and decapsulation
communication model based on the topic publishing/subscribing and encapsulation according to the protocol format, and
model, which provides a good platform for the construction of layer messages classifying based on the ID
UAV swarm communication node [10]. According to the design of messages
in Figure 1, we realize each layer of the model as Table 1 and
construct the airborne communication_node (comm_node) in the Network routing The plugin is added to the pluging file.
airborne ROS environment. management Layer In the main function, it parses
messages and judges which plugin to
As Figure 2, the airborne software structure of the UAV is briefly call. Then the data are transmitted to
described. The comm_node subscribes /publishes messages the plugin
from/to the mavros_node (UAV control module catenating with Link status
Pixhawk) and the airborne algorithm processing module (host monitoring layer
program running in ROS). At the same time, it communicates This layer includes message
with the GCS through microhard radio modems. In comm_node, management program, in which useing
it mainly shows the location of messages management module Messages the QoS algorithm to manage messages
and link status monitoring module in messages flow transmission, management layer of up and down links
and the other modules are simply expressed in “Main_process”.
Subscription and Topic publishing /subscribing model in
Through the comm_node, messages are effectively transferred publishing ROS environment, and DDS
among the airborne processor, the airborne controller and the GCS. Management Layer distributed communication
These messages are imported from the communication device architecture.
through the serial port or the network port. According to Figure 1,
messages will be classified by their ID number. In software For example, the messages on delay, belonging to the status of
implementation, these messages are divided into the following data link, can be obtained by global clock synchronization method.
categories: a) the directly controlling messages: directly As Figure 3, GPS gives time to all global nodes. When the GCS
forwarding to the UAV control module, which is generally or the UAV_B detects that the data delay is too large according to
applicable to a takeover in an emergency; b) the status of UAV the time stamp in the message packet, the link delay report
swarm: the airborne processing module controls the UAV needed message will be sent to the UAV_A actively. And the UAV also
to consider the status information of the surrounding UAVs, can send test message and detect the delay of the return packet for

63
the delay of data link asynchronously. The latter is simple but not
flexible enough, and there is a time and information
synchronization [11, 12] requirement in the UAV cluster control.
schedule and poll messages. When the intervals of request
services vary greatly, the round-robin scheduling algorithm tends
to unbalanced load among the message queues. When a message
queue is polled, the amount of messages in the buffer is checked
firstly. And if there is no message, skipping and continue polling.
If the volume of messages in the buffer exceeds 70% of the
storage area for the acceptance rate of the messages is higher than
the sending frequency, send multiple times without destroying the
other data sending periods to ensure the real-time data in this
policy. Then, the mutual exclusion mechanism is established
between period and no-period to avoid data conflict. Finally,
based on time series and the interruption mechanism, we propose
a policy which is configurable and load-balanced for multiple
message queues, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 3. Delay feedback of messages under global clock.

In software, all the messages that need to be sent are managed in
the data management module. The inter UAV messages also need
to be informed of their transmission path through the network
routing management module. Finally, the messages management
module manages and sends the messages.

3.2 Message Distribution Scheduling

Management Methods
This section presents two transmission policies of messages Figure 4. Multi-message queue scheduling mechanism.
management module, which included in “Middleware” of Figure
2. According to the actual conditions and restrictions of the link The pseudo code program of the policy for sending messages in
status monitoring layer and mission requests from the GCS, time is as Figure 5:
corresponding policies are selected from the policy library in
order to achieve fine communication quality. More concretely,
these policies provide for sending messages in time, fusing and
simplifying the special messages, transmitting directly or through
the multi-hop routing and so on.
The policy for sending messages in time. Inmissions such as
independent takeoff and landing, the UAV swarm system is more
sensitive to the real-time feature of messages for accurate
controlling. When messages delay is increasing, important
messages are sent in time by arranging the polling sequence of
data buffer, so that UAV status can be reported and controlled
timely. The policy arranges the polling sequence of messages
based on the sorting parameter se_par of all kinds of messages in
various volumes. The se_pars are calculated by the priority and
update_rate (Hz) of messages. For example, in formula (1), the Figure 5. The pseudo code program for sending in time.
weights a and b of the priority and the update_rate are 1 and 0.1,
respectively. As the priority of the import message is high, if the
update_rate of messages is high, the message should be sent lately Another policy is for fusing and simplifying messages. When
for the continuously changing data. Meanwhile, it is required to multi-UAV cooperation needed in the mission, synchronization of
prevent it from being later than the next priority. If the separ is messages is more sensitive. In view of perfect execution of the
identical, the messages are sorted according to the initial order of cooperative action, the system caches the messages and later
communication arrival. sends a set of special messages with the smallest time difference
with others in this policy. These special messages are chosen
(1) according to different tasks. After selected, they needs to be fused
into a message for preventing the loss of part of information and
After arranging the data buffers sequence, the data is polled based
reducing data conflicts. This policy includes: a) the same or
on the Round Robin Scheduling method, which is used to

64
similar data fusion: absolute height and relative height, heading data. If multiple groups of data are not synchronized, we will
angle and yaw angle; b) elimination of data or decreasing the notify the host program to change the update frequency of the dat
frequency of data transmission: some status information only used
to display in GCS or unrelated to the present mission. In this way,
due to short packets sent frequently are fused into a long packet,
the times of UAV requesting data links are reduce; With fusing
some special data and reducing the frequency of partial data, the
total amount of data is reduced. Through this policy, the signal
congestion at the receiving end will be relieved to a certain extent.
The synchronization of all kinds of sending messages is measured
by the max time difference between the latest data in the buffer
and the response time of the timer. In order to get the least
residence time of message in comm_node, it needs to consider
that the time axis of the timer and the message is not strict enough
and existing deviation between cycles of the timer and of the
periodic messages. So as time goes on, the deviation continuously
accumulates, which causes the time axes of the timer and the
messages misaligned and the residence time of messages larger.
For example, (1) the response of the timer takes precedence over a
message arrival, where the residence time of the latest messages
in the buffer is close to a data update period. As shown in Figure 6
(a); (2) the response point of the timer is later than the message
receiving, and the residence time of the latest message
continuously increases, as shown in Figure 6 (b). For information
synchronization, it is necessary to recalibrate the timeline of the Figure 7. The pseudo code program for sending in time .
timer and the messages for the least time differences among all a.
messages.
3.3 Message dispatching scheduling
management program
In the comm_node, a simple QoS mechanism is established. And
the policies are selected from the policy library according to the
conditions and constraints, such as Round Robin Scheduling
based on the timely sending and messages fusion for
Figure 6. Messaging timeliness management. synchronization. Figure 8 is the block diagram of the messages
management layer.
In Figure 6, t1 indicates the time difference between the start of
the timer and the first data transmission, and t2, t3, and t4,
respectively, indicate the time difference between the 1,2,3 timer
response data and the 2,3,4 messages reception. It can be seen
from Figure (a) that the second timing response arrives
simultaneously with the third and the third timer response takes
precedence over the fourth. Therefore, the sending message is still
the third time data, so the residence time is the timer period.
While a new message can be expected to arrive soon, waiting and
sending the next data for the better synchronization. And this can
be seen from the Figure (b) that the time difference between the
timer response time and the data arrival time gradually increases.
As a result, when the time difference exceeds the preset value, the
timeline should be recalibrated to reduce the time difference in the
program. When failing to find reasonable synchronous messages
twice for multiple messages with excessive time, the
synchronization should be abandoned to avoid over messages loss.
The pseudo code program of the policy for fusing and simplifying
messages is as Figure 7. As Figure 7, whether it is waiting for the
next data or restarting the timer, the delay is within a data update
cycle. In this case, the real-time of the data is not very important,
the reasonable extrapolation can be made on the basis of existing

Figure 8. QoS of the messages management layer.

65
 Figure 9. Semi-physical simulation system for the UAVs Swarm.
4. Experiments 4.2 Experimental phenomenon of the UAVs
4.1 Construction of A Semi-Physical Swarm
In the semi-physical simulation experiment of 7 aircrafts, the
Experiment Environment for the UAV Swarm communication pressure is increasing during the process of
Pixhawk + XPlane semi-physical simulation. The pixhawk is used
connecting to the GCS. The experiment indicates that the actual
for developing applications of fixed-wing UAVs. The semi-
period for heartbeat signals is longer than 1s or beating several
physical simulation environment can be very good simulation of
times in a period of time after pause; the speed of uploading
the real flight environment. The swarm network communication
routes is particularly slow or failed and other poor status in
node model and, especially, the messages management layer are
communication, so on. The reason for such a phenomenon lies in
verified by simulations.
the bandwidth and power of the limited digital radio and the
1) Linking Xplane10 and QGroundControl is used to create a frequent communication of short packets, which resulting in
simulation environment that simulates the true flight
4
environment and flight-related data.
2) Simulation data are transmitted to the airborne pixhawk.
Data Transmission Rate (kB/s)

Then through the pixhawk, data are transmitted to the

airborne controller odroid, in which existing the ROS 3
environment and running the programs on controlling UAVs.
Odroid is responsible for communication and control of the
UAVs by automatically starting each ROS node. In the
odroid, the commander_nod is responsible for managing the 2
PID parameter; the mavros_node is responsible for
receiving message from pixhawk, and sending messages to
pixhawk; the comm_node is responsible for
receiving/sengding messages from/to the GCS; and the 1
control_onboard_node is responsible for generating
navigation information, etc.
3) Communication between the UAVs and the GCS through
0
radio. The UAVs transmit related messages to the GCS; and 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
the commands are also transmitted from the GCS to the
UAVs. The GCS can perform UAVs unlock, take off, t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 Time (s)
mission, off-board and other operations by communicating
Figure 10. The downlink communication rate of 7 UAVs.
with the simulation UAV.
packet forwarding delay, stacking or packet collisions, and
In Figure 9, the physical relationship in the semi-physical increase in packet loss rate and delay. Due to the loss of messages
simulation system for the UAVs swarm is presented. increasing, messages need to be fused to reduce the
communication rate and avoid data conflict based on the QoS.

66
The downlink communication rate of UAVs in the swarm is
monitored, as shown in Figure 10. Then we analyze the changes
of communication rate and verify the QoS mechanism to ensure
the communication quality by selecting sending policies
according to the status of messages transmission.
As shown in Figure 10, the communication rate of a UAV is
stably 0.54kB/s before t1. When the volume of data is small, short
packet communication is used. And at the beginning of t1, the
second UAV is connected with the ground station to start
communication. The total communication rate is increased to
about 1.2 kB/s. At t2 and t3, the third and fourth UAVs start
communications respectively. As other UAVs begin to establish
communication, the communication rate begins to rise. Until t4, all
7 UAVs are connected to the ground station, and the
communication is stable. At this point the communication rate is
about 3.4kB/s, less than the superposition value of 3.78kB/s due
to packets loss caused by data conflict. It is maintained stable for
a period of time for the obvious effect of the experiment. At t 5, the
UAS fuses the short packets into long ones for reducing
communication rates and avoiding data conflict. At t6 the
communication rate decreases. By t7, after the data packet is fused,
the communication speed stabilizes at 1.8kB/s, that is to say, the
stand-alone data packet fusion is reduced to about 47% of the
traffic.
In the semi-physical simulation experiment of 20 aircrafts, the
experimental phenomena are similar to those of the above
experiments. However, due to the limitation of the bandwidth of
the digital radio and the amount of data transmitted, a solution is
that using three main radios in the GCS to communicate with
different mission groups of UAVs.
In the transmission phase, data classification is clear and all kinds
of data are not lost at the same time as a result of short packet
communication. So there will not appear any communication
blank point. However, when the volume of data is large, it is
prone to communication congestion, resulting in poor
communication. With long packet communication, the packet
header and the tail of the fused messages can be discarded to
reduce the amount of data and communication rates, and the
throughput of the data can be enhanced. However, long packets
leads to inflexibility in data. And the communication rate must be
reduced when using long packages, because the loss rate of the
long packet is higher than that of the short packet under same
communication rates [13]. So communication can not only use
long or short packets, and needs to select the appropriate sending
strategy through the QoS mechanism.
5. SUMMARY
The UAV swarm technology is one of the hot spots in the
development of UAVs. The communication system is the
foundation that guarantees the development of UAVs swarm
technology. The proposed multi -layer model of swarm network
communication and information management is of great guiding
significance to the design of the swarm communication system.
According to the module, the architecture in the ROS operating
system is implemented. The function is implemented in the
simulation and practical experiments, and the downlink data are
67
effectively scheduled. In the near future, we will focus on self-
organization network for the UAVs swarm.
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