A Networked Multiagent System for Mobile Wireless Infrastructure on Demand

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of wireless connectivity in urban areas around the globe, there remain numerous and diverse situations where connectivity is insufficient or unavailable. To address this, we introduce mobile wireless infrastructure on demand, a system of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can be rapidly deployed to establish an ad hoc wireless network. This network has the capability of reconfiguring itself dynamically to satisfy and maintain the required quality of communication. The system optimizes the positions of the UAVs and the routing of data flows throughout the network to achieve this Quality of Service (QoS). By these means, task agents using the network simply request a desired QoS, and the system adapts accordingly while allowing them to move freely. We have validated this system both in simulation and in real-world experiments. The results demonstrate that our system effectively offers mobile wireless infrastructure on demand, extending the operational range of task agents and supporting complex mobility patterns, all while ensuring connectivity and being resilient to agent failures.