Thesis Defense – Atefeh Molaei Birgani (MSEE)

Atefeh Molaei Birgani – M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering

Assoc. Prof.  Evşen Yanmaz Adam – Advisor

Date: 24/12/2024

Time: 13:00

Location:  AB4  428

“NETWORK PROVISIONING USING MULTIPLE UAVS IN SEARCH AND   RESCUE MISSIONS”

Assoc. Prof. Evşen Yanmaz Adam, Özyeğin University

Prof. Dr. Hazım Kemal EKENEL, Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ)

Assoc. Prof. Cenk Demiroğlu, Özyeğin University

Abstract:

Teams of UAV are widely considered for applications such as data collection and transmission, where UAV collaborate as data collection or delivery nodes. For this reason, recent research has proposed UAV path planning algorithms that integrate connectivity as a constraint or optimization objective. However, most studies primarily focus on topological connectivity or average network performance, often using network simulators with randomized or sweeping mobility models to analyze higher layer protocols. In this thesis, we first analyze the performance of multi-UAV path planners optimized for connectivity, investigating both collaboratively optimized networks and relay-assisted networks. Taking network optimized multi-UAV paths as input, we show that topologically connected UAV paths do not inherently guarantee acceptable network performance in terms of packet delivery rate PDR and throughput. To mitigate this problem, we then propose a traffic transmission scheduling mechanism that manages data transfers from one node to another in each time slot. Our findings show that dynamic relay-assisted scenarios perform comparably to static relay setups while requiring fewer relay nodes. Furthermore, collaborative optimization schemes perform well with a low number of UAV, particularly when the transmission range is high or the number of nodes is limited, reducing the likelihood of hub node congestion. Furthermore, the transmission scheduling approach enhances network performance by effectively managing data traffic.

Bio:

Atefeh Molaei Birgani joined the Electrical Engineering Department at Özyeğin University (OzU) in February 2022, where she is currently a researcher in the Networked and Autonomous Systems (NAS) Laboratory. Her research focuses on multi-UAV systems, Fly ad hoc networks and wireless communication.

She concluded his master's studies at the NAS Laboratory with a notable publication:

1) A. Molaei and E. Yanmaz, "Network Analysis of Connectivity Optimized Multi-UAV Path Planners," IEEE INFOCOM 2024 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/INFOCOMWKSHPS61880.2024.10620708.