Improving the information compression algorithm in the unmanned aerial vehicle communication system

Abstract

The problem of processing large amounts of data transmitted over wireless communication networks with low bandwidth is a pressing one, and it is one of the main obstacles to the effective deployment of such networks. The most rational way to solve this problem is to conduct research on improving the compression method, or using a combination of data compression methods, which will reduce the volume and time of data transmission. The purpose of the research is to increase the compression of data transmitted between an unmanned aerial vehicle and a control point and reduce the processor time for compressing one packet of the source coding process for a wireless communication channel using the MAVLink protocol in conditions of limited resources of the microcontroller of an unmanned aerial vehicle. The task set in the work was to develop an improved lossless data compression algorithm when using it within the Mavlink v2 protocol and evaluate the compression efficiency. The methods used were to improve the source stream compression when exchanging data using the MAVLink protocol, which is characterized by small packet volumes. Source coding with lossless compression was carried out by forming bit masks and pairwise compressing them according to their properties. The scientific novelty consists in the development of a sequential pair source coding algorithm for a wireless communication channel, which implements stream coding of bytes of the packet structure, which provides lossless information compression. The practical significance of the results obtained lies in the possibility of effective application in the development of communication systems for control and information exchange between a control point and an unmanned aerial vehicle using the MAVLink protocol. The results of the work are the improvement of the source coding algorithm for effective lossless compression of MAVLink packets in communication systems under conditions of limited resources of an unmanned aerial vehicle, and the establishment of the inefficiency of known algorithms for small MAVLink packets. that the total volume of packets is reduced by fifty-four percent. Comparison of the compression efficiency of the proposed improved source coding algorithm and known compression algorithms showed that the total volume of packets is reduced by seventeen percent. In addition, when using the proposed algorithm, the processor time consumption for compressing one packet is significantly reduced (on average, compression of one packet lasts less than a microsecond), which is significantly less than when using known compression algorithms. The conclusions of the work are the proposal of an improved compression algorithm for a wireless communication channel, which provides a higher compression ratio compared to the considered algorithms during streaming serial-pair encoding of bytes of MAVLink protocol packets.