Avens - A Novel Flying Ad Hoc Network Simulator With Automatic Code Generation For Unmanned Aircraft System

The wireless communication has played a significant impact on our daily lives introducing simplicity and making life more comfortable. As a result of faster technological advances in electronics and communications, the development of different types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has become possible. Recently, many efforts have been made to develop more efficient inter- and intra-vehicle communication protocols introducing new challenges, e. g. multiple-UAV communication and Flying Ad Hoc Networks (FANETs). However, most of the experiments using real prototypes or systems are not feasible due to the costs and risks involved. Thus, simulating network protocol behavior in FANET scenarios is increasingly required to evaluate the applicability of developed network protocols. Thereby, we have been developing AVENS, a hybrid aerial network simulation framework, which merges LARISSA Architectural Model, X-Plane Flight Simulator and OMNeT++ Discrete Event Simulator. In a proof-of-concept study, we highlighted its advantages. Using AVENS, we can advance in the state-of-the-art concerning performance evaluation of intelligent aerial vehicles and provide means to evaluate the development of protocols, codes and systems more accurately.