A deterministic radio propagation model for inter-paraglider communication

It has been shown that paragliders could considerably benefit from ad-hoc communication, be it for safety or the prolonging of flight times through the exchange of thermal information. The simulation of these so called Flying Ad-Hoc Networks (FANETs) can help evaluate the feasibility and performance of these and other applications inexpensively and at large scale. Their specific communication characteristics, caused by inevitable suboptimal antenna placement and 3D node distribution, require accurate channel and propagation models in order to produce meaningful results in a simulation environment. We identify two important parameters that heavily influence the Received Signal Strength (RSS), namely the vertical angle between paragliders and their horizontal relative bearing. Based on extensive real life experiments we present a deterministic and computationally inexpensive radio propagation model that is able to reliably predict our measurements. Our work allows the realistic simulation of wireless communication between paragliders.