A drone swarm network communication system and a control method thereof

Abstract

The application discloses a kind of unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication systems and its control method, comprising: ground terminal, with large unmanned aerial vehicle is formed with ground terminal as cluster head first-level network by L0 frequency point, with small unmanned aerial vehicle is formed with ground terminal as cluster head second-level subnetwork by L1 frequency point;Large unmanned aerial vehicle group, with ground terminal is formed with ground terminal as cluster head first-level network by L0 frequency point, with small unmanned aerial vehicle is formed with large unmanned aerial vehicle as cluster head second-level subnetwork by L1~L4 frequency point;Small unmanned aerial vehicle group, with ground terminal is formed with ground terminal as cluster head second-level subnetwork by L1 frequency point, with large unmanned aerial vehicle is formed with large unmanned aerial vehicle as cluster head second-level subnetwork by L1~L4 frequency point;Adjacent second-level subnetwork works in different L frequency point, and the same L frequency point is multiplexed between second-level subnetworks with distance greater than predetermined threshold value.This scheme can save spectrum resource, reduce system power consumption while ensuring communication distance.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, in particular to a UAV swarm network communication system and a control method thereof. BACKGROUND

[0002] The UAV swarm network is a distributed self-organizing network with a hierarchical and multi-cluster structure composed of a large number of nodes. When performing tasks, the UAV cluster needs to meet the functions of real-time tracking and positioning of UAVs, remote control and telemetry, real-time task planning and coordination, and task information transmission. These functions require stable and reliable communication networks.

[0003] When the UAV swarm network communication operation is in progress, the communication between nodes interferes with each other, and the efficiency of spectrum resource allocation is not high, resulting in a decline in system communication performance. The application of frequency hopping communication in self-organizing networks can significantly improve the anti-interference ability of the network. In the frequency hopping communication process, the carrier frequency of the transmission signal jumps according to a certain frequency hopping pattern, and the transmitting and receiving parties need to use the same frequency hopping pattern. However, in the self-organizing network, not only does point-to-point transmission exist between nodes, but also point-to-multipoint broadcast transmission exists. Each node needs to negotiate the frequency point with the adjacent nodes. The existing technical solutions either adopt a central control mode or a feedback channel mode, without considering the requirements of the UAV swarm network for system power consumption, communication distance, and networking flexibility.

[0004] Therefore, there is a need for a UAV swarm network communication system and a control method thereof, which can save spectrum resources while improving the anti-interference and adaptability of network communication and reducing system power consumption. SUMMARY

[0005] In view of the above problems, the present application provides a UAV swarm network communication system and a control method thereof, which adopts a frequency division multiple access multiplexing networking mode, i.e., the nodes within a cluster adopt a time division multiple access networking mode, and clusters at a certain distance adopt a frequency division multiplexing mode to save frequency resources; according to the different action distances between nodes, high or low L frequency points are selected in the L frequency band for networking, thereby reducing system power consumption on the basis of ensuring communication distance.

[0006] According to a first aspect of the present application, a UAV swarm network communication system is provided, comprising a ground terminal, a large UAV group, and a small UAV group.

[0007] The ground terminal is configured to form a first-level network with the large UAV group as a cluster head through an L0 frequency point, and form a second-level sub-network with the small UAV group as a cluster head through an L1 frequency point.

[0008] The large unmanned aerial vehicle group is used for forming a first-level network with the ground terminal as a cluster head through an L0 frequency point and forming a second-level sub-network with the large unmanned aerial vehicle as a cluster head through L1-L4 frequency points.

[0009] The small unmanned aerial vehicle group is used for forming a second-level sub-network with the ground terminal as a cluster head through an L1 frequency point and forming a second-level sub-network with the large unmanned aerial vehicle as a cluster head through L1-L4 frequency points.

[0010] Optionally, in the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system, the large unmanned aerial vehicles in the large unmanned aerial vehicle group that are spaced apart by less than a first preset distance perform cooperative information interaction; and the small unmanned aerial vehicles in the small unmanned aerial vehicle group that are spaced apart by less than a second preset distance perform cooperative information interaction. That is, single-hop network communication is adopted between the large unmanned aerial vehicles and between the small unmanned aerial vehicles.

[0011] Optionally, in the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system, a communication distance of the first-level network between the ground terminal and the large unmanned aerial vehicle is not less than 110 km, and a communication distance between adjacent large unmanned aerial vehicles in the large unmanned aerial vehicle group is not less than 5 km; a communication distance of the second-level sub-network between the ground terminal and the small unmanned aerial vehicle is not less than 30 km, and a communication distance between adjacent small unmanned aerial vehicles in the small unmanned aerial vehicle group and a communication distance of the second-level sub-network between the large unmanned aerial vehicle and the small unmanned aerial vehicle are not less than 5 km.

[0012] Optionally, in the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system, the ground terminal is configured to determine a working frequency point of the second-level sub-network according to a node number and a network topology structure of the small unmanned aerial vehicle, and assign the working frequency point of the second-level sub-network to a cluster head of the second-level sub-network.

[0013] Optionally, in the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system, the first-level network and the second-level sub-network adopt the same time slot length and time frame length, a first time slot of each time frame is a broadcast time slot, and the remaining time slots are service time slots.

[0014] Optionally, in the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system, the ground terminal is configured to set a time frame structure of the first-level network according to data of an aerial node that can be supported by the first-level network, and set a time frame structure of the second-level sub-network according to a node number in a cluster of the second-level sub-network.

[0015] Optionally, in the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system, the ground terminal is configured to broadcast the networking information and remote control information through the ground station broadcast time slot, and receive the remote sensing information; the large unmanned aerial vehicle is configured to receive and send the networking information, remote control information, remote sensing information and adjacent large unmanned aerial vehicle node coordination information through the large machine broadcast time slot; the large unmanned aerial vehicle serving as the cluster head is further configured to forward the remote sensing information of the nodes in the cluster to the ground terminal, and forward the remote control information of the ground terminal to the nodes in the cluster; the small unmanned aerial vehicle is configured to receive and send the networking information, remote sensing information and adjacent small unmanned aerial vehicle node coordination information through the small machine broadcast time slot, and receive the remote control information of the cluster head.

[0016] Optionally, in the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system, when the task amount changes, the ground terminal is configured to send broadcast information for changing the network networking architecture to the aerial nodes, so that the aerial nodes re-network according to the time frame structure corresponding to the changed network networking architecture.

[0017] Optionally, in the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system, the ground terminal is configured to allocate service time slots according to the video traffic, so that the nodes interact with each other through the service time slots.

[0018] According to a second aspect of the present application, a control method of an unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system is provided, comprising:

[0019] According to the amount of tasks to be performed, the target cluster head ID of the node ID of the nodes of the primary network and the secondary subnetwork in the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system is determined.

[0020] According to the node quantity, the time frame structure of the primary network and the secondary subnetwork is determined, the networking working frequency point is determined according to the communication distance between the nodes, and the networking and information interaction are performed based on the time frame structure, the working frequency point and the target cluster head ID of the node ID.

[0021] When the node quantity and the communication distance change, the time frame structure and the working frequency point of the primary network and the secondary subnetwork are re-determined, and the network is re-networked based on the new time frame structure and the working frequency point.

[0022] According to the scheme of the present application, a multi-address multiplexing method is used for networking, that is, the nodes in the cluster use a time division multiple access method for networking, and clusters far apart use a frequency division multiplexing method to save frequency resources; high L frequency points or low L frequency points are selected in the L frequency band for networking according to the different action distances between the nodes, so as to reduce the system power consumption on the basis of ensuring the communication distance; the two-level networks communicate independently and with each other, so that the network has flexibility and can form an overall swarm network and form a swarm strike capability.

[0023] The above description is only a summary of the technical solutions of the present application. In order to enable one skilled in the art to better understand the technical means of the present application and to implement the same according to the contents of the description, and in order to enable the above and other purposes, characteristics and advantages of the present application to be more apparent and easy to understand, the following specific embodiments of the present application are described. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0024] Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a description of the preferred embodiments and are not meant to limit the present application. Furthermore, the same reference numerals are used throughout the several views that follow. In the drawings:

[0025] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a UAV swarm network communication system according to an embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0026] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a primary network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0027] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a secondary sub-network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0028] Figure 4 A flowchart of a control method 400 of a UAV swarm network communication system according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. While exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it is understood that the present disclosure can be embodied in various forms and should not be limited by the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art.

[0030] The UAV swarm network link channel capacity is limited, and there is more or less delay. In the application scenario of intensive task instruction sending and extremely high time efficiency requirement, how to maximize the channel capacity to realize instant communication, complete efficient node feedback and task execution, further optimization of the swarm networking is needed.

[0031] The hierarchical structure of the UAV swarm architecture divides each node in the network into a cluster, and each cluster network includes a cluster head and a plurality of member nodes. Each node realizes different functions by carrying different sensing, communication and operation equipment.

[0032] The scheme provides a UAV swarm network communication system and a control method thereof. By adopting inter-cluster node frequency division multiple access, intra-cluster node time division multiple access, and space division multiplexing for clusters with a distance exceeding a preset threshold, frequency resources can be saved, and system communication anti-interference performance can be improved. By selecting low and high L frequency points in an L frequency band according to different action distances for networking, system power consumption can be reduced on the basis of ensuring communication distance.

[0033] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a UAV swarm network communication system according to one embodiment of the application is shown. As shown in Figure 1 The UAV swarm network communication system provided by the scheme includes a ground terminal, a large UAV group, and a small UAV group.

[0034] In the communication link, each node adopts an L frequency band (1-2 GHz) for communication. Opening more L frequency bands can rapidly increase data bandwidth of existing and new base stations, which can be used for uploading and downloading data or can be used for uploading data.

[0035] In order to reduce communication interference between nodes, the scheme can adopt L0+Ln (n=1-4) frequency division networking, that is, different frequency hopping networks use different frequency hopping frequencies. The ground terminal can work in L0-L4 frequency points at the same time. The L0-L4 frequency points are non-overlapping L frequency band frequency division points from low to high.

[0036] For example, the ground terminal can form a first-level network with the large UAV group as a cluster head through the L0 frequency point, and form a second-level subnetwork with the small UAV group as a cluster head through the L1 frequency point.

[0037] The communication distance of the first-level network between the ground terminal and the large UAV is not less than 110 km, and the communication distance of the second-level subnetwork between the ground terminal and the small UAV is not less than 30 km.

[0038] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a first-level network architecture according to one embodiment of the application is shown. As shown in Figure 2 The first-level mesh network (action distance ≥ 110 km) is formed by the ground terminal and the large UAV using the L0 frequency point.

[0039] The large UAV group acts as a relay machine, and has better stability and endurance, and can work in L0-L4 frequency points at the same time. For example, the large UAV group forms a first-level network with the ground terminal as a cluster head through the L0 frequency point. The large UAV group forms a second-level subnetwork with the small UAV group as a cluster head through the L1-L4 frequency points.

[0040] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a second-level subnetwork architecture according to one embodiment of the application is shown. As shown in Figure 3As shown, the small unmanned aerial vehicle group only works at L1~L4 frequency points. For example, a secondary subnet is formed with the ground terminal as the cluster head through the L1 frequency point. The communication distance between the ground terminal and the small unmanned aerial vehicle in the secondary subnet is not less than 30 km. A secondary subnet is formed with the large unmanned aerial vehicle as the cluster head through L1~L4. Among them, adjacent secondary subnets work at different L frequency points, and secondary subnets with a distance greater than a predetermined threshold reuse the same L frequency point.

[0041] The large unmanned aerial vehicle group performs cooperative information interaction between large unmanned aerial vehicles with an intermediate distance less than a first preset distance; and the small unmanned aerial vehicle group performs cooperative information interaction between small unmanned aerial vehicles with an intermediate distance less than a second preset distance. That is, single-hop networks are used for communication between small unmanned aerial vehicles and between large unmanned aerial vehicles. In an embodiment of the present application, the communication distance (the first preset distance) between adjacent small unmanned aerial vehicles in the small unmanned aerial vehicle group and the communication distance between adjacent large unmanned aerial vehicles in the large unmanned aerial vehicle group are not less than 5 km.

[0042] As shown, Figure 3 Adjacent secondary subnets work at different L frequency points. The ground terminal can determine the working frequency point of the secondary subnet according to the number of nodes of the small unmanned aerial vehicle and the network topology structure, and allocate the working frequency point of the secondary subnet to the cluster head of the secondary subnet. The small unmanned aerial vehicle can also join different clusters by searching for a suitable L frequency point among L1~L4 frequency points, or by instructing or pre-setting the small unmanned aerial vehicle to join the target cluster head.

[0043] In order to facilitate network management, the primary network and the secondary subnet use the same time slot length and time frame length. One time frame includes 10 time slots, and the first time slot of each time frame is a broadcast time slot. Table 1 shows the default time frame structure of the primary network according to an embodiment of the present application:

[0044]

[0045]

[0046] The default primary network can support up to 16 air nodes, so there are a total of 17 nodes in the primary network. Each time slot is tentatively set to 0.6 ms, each time frame is composed of 10 time slots (10*0.6 ms=6 ms), and each 17 time frames form a super frame (17*6 ms=102 ms). The first time slot in each time frame is a broadcast time slot, and the 17 broadcast time slots are respectively allocated to the ground station and other air nodes for transmission of networking, remote control, telemetry, and inter-aircraft cooperative information. At this time, the frame frequency of the inter-aircraft cooperative information of the large unmanned aerial vehicle is 102 ms.

[0047] Table 2 shows the default time frame structure of the secondary subnet according to an embodiment of the present application:

[0048]

[0049]

[0050] As shown in Table 2, the system defaults to 5 nodes per secondary subnet node (1 cluster head and 4 cluster nodes), at which time the entire network can support up to 17*5=85 nodes, and the number of secondary subnet nodes supported by each cluster head can be changed from 2 to a maximum of 5 (1 cluster head and 4 cluster nodes) by configuring the L-band time frame structure of the cluster head (ground station or large unmanned aerial vehicle).

[0051] Every 5 time frames form a super frame (5*6ms=30ms). The first time slot in each time frame is a broadcast time slot, and the 5 broadcast time slots are respectively allocated to the cluster head (ground station or large unmanned aerial vehicle) and the small unmanned aerial vehicle node.

[0052] The ground terminal can set the time frame structure of the primary network according to the data of the air nodes supported by the primary network, and set the time frame structure of the secondary subnet according to the number of cluster nodes in the secondary subnet.

[0053] For example, when the ground station sets the primary network to support only 8 air nodes, the ground station changes the time frame structure of the primary network and broadcasts the current time frame structure in its own broadcast time slot. At this time, the time of each super frame becomes 9*0.6ms=54ms. At this time, the frame frequency of the inter-machine coordination information of the large unmanned aerial vehicle is 54ms.

[0054] When the ground station sets a cluster head to support 2 small unmanned aerial vehicle nodes, the time frame structure of the secondary subnet of the set cluster head is changed, and the current time frame structure is broadcast in its own broadcast time slot. At this time, the time of each super frame becomes 3*6ms=18ms, the frame frequency of the inter-machine coordination information of the small unmanned aerial vehicle is 18ms, the frame frequency of the remote control and telemetry frame is 102ms+18ms=120ms, and the remaining 9 service time slots can provide 3 paths of 3*1.5Mbps=4.5Mbps service, meeting the requirement of providing 3 paths of 512kbps-4Mbps image service. When all cluster heads of the secondary subnet are set to support 2 small unmanned aerial vehicle nodes, the total number of nodes that the entire network can support is 17*3=51.

[0055] Specifically, ground terminals can broadcast network information and remote control information through ground station broadcast time slots, and receive telemetry information; large UAVs can broadcast their own network information, remote control information, telemetry information, and collaborative information with adjacent large UAV nodes through large UAV broadcast time slots; large UAVs acting as cluster heads can also forward telemetry information from nodes within the cluster to ground terminals, and forward remote control information from ground terminals to nodes within the cluster; small UAVs can broadcast their own network information, telemetry information, and collaborative information with adjacent small UAV nodes through small UAV broadcast time slots, and receive remote control information from cluster heads.

[0056] The ground terminal can also allocate service time slots according to the video traffic volume, enabling each node to conduct video service interaction through the service time slots.

[0057] Based on a physical layer effective information rate of 15 Mbps, each 0.6 ms broadcast time slot can transmit (15 Mbps * 0.6 ms) / 8 = 1125 bytes of information. The frame length for remote control and telemetry information is 64 + 128 = 192 bytes. Inter-machine coordination information is 32 bytes. Networking information is calculated at 80 bytes. Therefore, in addition to sending its own networking information, each broadcast time slot can package and send (1125 - 32 - 80) / 192 = 5 remote control and telemetry information frames targeting different nodes.

[0058] The entire network supports 17*5=85 nodes, meeting the requirement of 81 nodes in the entire network. The remaining 9 service time slots can provide 3 channels of service at a rate of 3*(15Mbps / 10)=4.5Mbps, meeting the requirement of providing 3 channels of 512kbps-4Mbps image service.

[0059] To meet the complex and ever-changing requirements of swarm networking tasks, the communication links of drone swarm networking need to be dynamically deployed. Figure 4 A flowchart illustrating a control method 400 for a drone swarm network communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. Figure 4 As shown, the method 400 begins with step S410, which determines the number of nodes in the primary network and secondary subnet of the UAV swarm network communication system, the target cluster head ID of the node ID, and the node ID based on the amount of tasks to be performed.

[0060] In automatic deployment mode, the superframe structure for both L0 and L1-L4 frequency points adopts the default structure:

[0061] The L0 frequency point uses ground stations as cluster heads and supports a network of 16 large UAV nodes, totaling 17 nodes;

[0062] In the L1-L4 frequency points, the L1 frequency point is fixedly used to take the ground station as the cluster head, supports 4 small unmanned aerial vehicle nodes, and a total of 5 nodes; the large unmanned aerial vehicle node uses the frequency division multiplexing mode in the L1-L4 frequency points of the L frequency band to take the large unmanned aerial vehicle as the cluster head, supports 4 small unmanned aerial vehicle nodes in each cluster, and a total of 5 nodes. The allocation of the L1-L4 networking frequency points is determined by the ground station according to the algorithm.

[0063] The total network supports 17*5=85 nodes when automatically deployed. Because the networking of the L frequency band uses the space division multiplexing mode, after the ground station is started, the large unmanned aerial vehicle and the small unmanned aerial vehicle nodes that need to be supported need to be released in batches.

[0064] In the manual deployment mode, the number of supported nodes of the first-level network and the number of nodes supported by each cluster in the second-level subnetwork can be defined according to the task requirements. The number of nodes supported by the first-level network is defined in the range of 2-17, and the number of nodes supported by each cluster in the second-level subnetwork is defined in the range of 2-5.

[0065] In addition to defining the number of supported nodes, small unmanned aerial vehicles with different ID numbers can be further defined to join the cluster composed of the large unmanned aerial vehicle with the specified cluster head ID number according to the task requirements. The small unmanned aerial vehicle set with the target cluster head ID will continuously search the L1-L4 frequency points after starting, and will judge whether the target cluster head ID is its own after demodulating the broadcast information. If yes, it will join the cluster, and if not, it will continue to search until it joins the target cluster.

[0066] Then, step S420 is performed to determine the time frame structure of the first-level network and the second-level subnetwork according to the number of nodes, determine the networking working frequency points according to the communication distance between the nodes, and perform networking and information interaction based on the time frame structure, the working frequency points, and the target cluster head ID of the node ID.

[0067] Referring to the time frame structures shown in Tables 1 and 2, the ground terminal can send the networking information and remote control information through the ground station broadcast time slot of the L0-L4 frequency points, receive the telemetry information; the large unmanned aerial vehicle receives and transmits its own networking information, remote control information, telemetry information, and adjacent large unmanned aerial vehicle node cooperative interaction information through the large machine broadcast time slot, the large unmanned aerial vehicle as the target cluster head can forward the telemetry information of the nodes in the cluster to the ground terminal, and forward the remote control information of the ground terminal to the nodes in the cluster; the small unmanned aerial vehicle receives and transmits its own networking information, telemetry information, and adjacent small unmanned aerial vehicle node interaction and cooperative information through the small machine broadcast time slot of the L1-L4 frequency points, and receives the remote control information of the cluster head.

[0068] Finally, step S430 is performed to re-determine the time frame structure and working frequency points of the first-level network and the second-level subnetwork when the number of nodes and the communication distance change, and re-networking based on the new time frame structure and working frequency points.

[0069] For example, if the task needs to be changed or some nodes are damaged, the ground station can send broadcast information to the nodes in the air to change the network architecture and the time frame structure, and the nodes receiving the information will exit the current network and re-network according to the superframe structure and working frequency corresponding to the new architecture.

[0070] The unmanned aerial vehicle swarm network communication system and the control method thereof provided by the application adopt a multi-address multiplexing mode, i.e., nodes in a cluster adopt a time division multiple access mode to network, clusters at a certain distance adopt a frequency division multiplexing mode to save frequency resources; high L frequency points or low L frequency points are selected in the L frequency band according to different action distances between nodes to network, which can reduce system power consumption on the basis of ensuring communication distance; two-level networks independently communicate with each other and communicate with each other, so that the network has flexibility and can form an overall swarm network to form a swarm strike capability.

[0071] In the description provided herein, a large number of specific details are explained. However, it can be understood that embodiments of the application can be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the understanding of this description.

[0072] Similarly, it is to be understood that, in the above description of exemplary embodiments of the application, various features of the application are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, a figure, or a description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various aspects of the application. However, the disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the application requires more features than are explicitly recited in each claim. Rather, the inventive aspects lie in less than all features of the single embodiments disclosed above. The claims, thus, reflect properly only the scope of the application. Accordingly, the summary of the disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the application requires a more specific combination of features in order to implement the application fully than is explicitly recited in the claims. In this case, the claims are hereby expressly incorporated into this detailed description, with each claim acting as a separate embodiment of the application.

[0073] Those skilled in the art will understand that the modules or units or components of the devices in the examples disclosed herein can be arranged in the devices as described in the examples, or alternatively can be located in one or more devices different from the devices in the examples. The modules in the foregoing examples can be combined into one module or further divided into multiple sub-modules.

[0074] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the modules in the apparatuses in the embodiments can be adapted and placed in one or more apparatuses other than the embodiments. The modules or units or components in the embodiments can be combined into one module or unit or component, and further can be split into multiple sub-modules or sub-units or sub-components. Any combination of all the features disclosed in the specification (including the accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and any method or process or steps of an embodiment so disclosed, can be made unless it is explicitly stated otherwise. Each feature disclosed in the description (including the accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) can be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose unless expressly stated otherwise.

[0075] Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the features of the different embodiments can be combined in any combination with one another, as the scope of the present application is not limited by the features of the embodiments described herein. For example, in the following claims, any of the embodiments claimed can be used in any combination.

[0076] Furthermore, some of the embodiments described herein are of apparatuses and methods involving information transfer in which the apparatuses perform processes involving data being sent and received, wherein the data is in the form of signals and other physical phenomena. It is to be understood that the apparatuses can be configured to perform such processes by way of other modalities where appropriate and it is therefore, within the scope of the present application.

[0077] As used herein, unless otherwise indicated, the use of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", "third", etc., merely to distinguish different instances of an object to which the adjective refers, and are not intended to denote a given sequence or order of such objects. Thus, a reference to a first object and a second object, for example, does not require a given sequence between the first and second objects.

[0078] While the application has been described in terms of several embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other embodiments can be practiced under the teachings of the application as described above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that languages used herein have been chosen for the sake of clarity and the purpose of teaching and enabling the claimed invention rather than to limit the scope of the application. Therefore, many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings without departing from the scope and spirit of the claimed invention. The disclosure of the application is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the application, which is set forth with particularity in the claims that follow.

Claims

1. A drone swarm network communication system, characterized in that, include: Ground terminals are used to form a primary network with large UAVs via the L0 frequency point, and to form a secondary subnetwork with small UAVs via the L1 frequency point, also with ground terminals as the cluster heads. Large drone clusters are used to form a primary network with ground terminals as the cluster heads via the L0 frequency point and small drones via the L1~L4 frequency points, forming a secondary subnetwork with large drones as the cluster heads. Small UAV clusters are used to form a secondary subnet with ground terminals as the cluster heads via L1 frequency and to form a secondary subnet with large UAVs as the cluster heads via L1 to L4 frequency. Adjacent secondary subnets operate on different L frequency points, and secondary subnets with a distance greater than a predetermined threshold reuse the same L frequency point. The L0 to L4 frequency points are L-band frequency division points that do not overlap from low to high.

2. The UAV swarm network communication system according to claim 1, characterized in that, In the large drone group, large drones with a spacing of less than a first preset distance interact with each other in a collaborative information exchange manner; in the small drone group, small drones with a spacing of less than a second preset distance interact with each other in a collaborative information exchange manner.

3. The UAV swarm network communication system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The ground terminal is used to determine the operating frequency of the secondary subnet based on the number of nodes and network topology of the small UAV, and to allocate the operating frequency of the secondary subnet to the cluster head of the secondary subnet.

4. The UAV swarm network communication system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The primary network and the secondary subnet use the same time slot length and time frame length. The first time slot of each time frame is the broadcast time slot, and the remaining time slots are service time slots.

5. The UAV swarm network communication system according to claim 4, characterized in that, The ground terminal is used to set the time frame structure of the primary network according to the air node data that the primary network can support, and to set the time frame structure of the secondary subnet according to the number of nodes within the cluster of the secondary subnet.

6. The UAV swarm network communication system according to claim 5, characterized in that, The ground terminal is used to send networking information and remote control information via ground station broadcast time slots, and to receive telemetry information. The large UAV is used to transmit and receive its own networking information, remote control information, telemetry information, and collaborative information with adjacent large UAV nodes through the broadcast time slots of the large UAV; The large UAVs that serve as cluster heads are also used to forward telemetry information from nodes within the cluster to ground terminals, and to forward remote control information from ground terminals to nodes within the cluster. The small UAV is used to transmit and receive its own network information, telemetry information and cooperative information with neighboring small UAV nodes through small UAV broadcast time slots, and to receive remote control information from the cluster head.

7. The UAV swarm network communication system according to claim 6, characterized in that, When the workload changes, the ground terminal is used to send broadcast information to the air nodes to change the network architecture, so that the air nodes can re-network according to the time frame structure corresponding to the changed network architecture.

8. The UAV swarm network communication system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The ground terminal is used to allocate service time slots according to the video traffic volume, so that each node can perform video service interaction through the service time slots.

9. The UAV swarm network communication system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The communication distance between the ground terminal and the large UAV in the primary network is not less than 110km, and the communication distance between adjacent large UAVs in the large UAV group is not less than 5km; the communication distance between the ground terminal and the small UAV in the secondary subnetwork is not less than 30km, and the communication distance between adjacent small UAVs in the small UAV group and the communication distance between the large UAVs and the small UAVs in the secondary subnetwork is not less than 5km.

10. A control method for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm network communication system, characterized in that, include: The number of nodes and the target cluster head ID of the primary network and secondary subnet in the UAV swarm network communication system as described in any one of claims 1-9 are determined based on the amount of tasks to be performed. The time frame structure of the primary network and secondary subnet is determined based on the number of nodes. The network operating frequency is determined based on the communication distance between nodes. Networking and information exchange are performed based on the target cluster head ID of the node ID, the time frame structure, the operating frequency, and the node ID. When the number of nodes and communication distance change, the time frame structure and operating frequency of the primary network and secondary subnet are redefined, and the network is reorganized based on the new time frame structure and operating frequency.

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