Implementation of 3D Obstacle Compliant Mobility Models for UAV Networks in ns-3

UAV networks are envisioned to play a crucial role in the future generations of wireless networks. The mechanical degrees of freedom in the movement of UAVs provides various advantages for tactical and civilian applications. Due to the high cost of failures in system-based tests, initial analysis and refinement of designs and algorithms for UAV applications are performed through rigorous simulations. Current trend of UAV specific simulators is mainly biased towards the mechanical properties of flying. For network-centric simulations, the intended measurements on the performance of protocols in mobile scenarios are conventionally captured from general-purpose network simulators, which are not natively equipped with comprehensive models for 3D movements of UAVs. To facilitate such simulations for UAV systems, this paper presents different mobility models for emulation of the movement of a UAV. Detailed description of three mobility models (random walk, random direction, and Gauss-Markov) are presented, and their associated movement patterns are characterized. This characterization is further extended by considering the effect of large obstacles on movement patterns of nodes following the three models. The mobility models are prepared as open-source add-ons for ns-3 network simulator.