Cluster-Based FANETs with MIMO-OFDM under 3D Mobility in 5G and Beyond

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) play a significant role in autonomous systems, serving diverse applications across numerous fields. The integration of UAVs in autonomous systems continues to evolve, promising significant advancements and new applications across various sectors in 5G and beyond. For increasing throughput, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) with orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM) based MAC protocol is the most efficient platform. Regarding flying ad-hoc networks (FANETs), frequent topology changes, power utilization, interference minimization and frequency spectrum management are the main challenges. Therefore, we have introduced a 3D Markov chain-based backoff method with an efficient cluster control and build-up mechanism that ensures network connectivity in a 3D mobility platform at different altitudes, as it is mandatory to adjust altitude for the desired coverage. The simulation results are analyzed by examining the throughput value concerning distance, velocity, and the number of UAVs for different MIMO-OFDM configurations and channel models, such as Rayleigh and Nakagami-m. Additionally, we also analyzed the bit error rate (BER) and outage probability OP responses with signal to noise ratio. Therefore, by achieving higher throughput and lower delay compared to existing work, the system is a more promising platform.