Design and Implementation of a Communication-Computing-Caching Integrated Air-to-Ground Collaborative Ad Hoc Network System

The use of communication modules mounted on uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) to establish aerial base stations enables rapid and cost-effective network deployment, facilitates line-of-sight (LoS) transmission, and thereby provides higherquality communication services. The UAV-based air-to-ground collaborative ad hoc network, with its wide coverage and flexibility, is expected to play a crucial role in future cellular communications. Motivated by the above, we investigate networking technologies for air-to-ground collaborative mechanisms in highly dynamic, large-scale environments and design a communication-computing-caching integrated air-to-ground collaborative ad hoc network system. This system employs an air-to-ground joint networking architecture that ensures efficient information transmission, guaranteeing communication performance and reliability in scenarios with limited infrastructure. Through practical testing, the designed communication-computing-caching integrated air-to-ground collaborative ad hoc network system achieves singlehop air-to-ground transmission over 6.5 km, with delay controlled within 3 ms. Additionally, the system supports multi-hop information transmission, with a maximum communication range exceeding 30 km. Furthermore, by integrating edge computing with the “store-carry-forward” mechanism, the system significantly enhances the mobile access capabilities and task processing abilities of users, further optimizing overall communication and task offloading performance.