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There is much emerging interest in operating Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) at long-range distances. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether network connectivity at these distances is sufficient to enable applications with stringent performance needs. In this paper, we consider this question in the context of video streaming, an important UAS use-case. We make three contributions. First, we characterize network data collected from real-world UAS flight tests. Our results show that while dropouts (i.e., extended periods of poor performance) present challenges, there is potential to enable video streaming with modest delays, and correlation of throughput with flight path (both distance and orientation) provides new opportunities. Second, we present Proteus, the first system for video streaming targeted at long-range UAS settings. Proteus is distinguished from Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) algorithms developed for Internet settings by explicitly accounting for dropouts, and leveraging flight path information. Third, through experiments with real-world flight traces on an emulation test-bed, we show that at distances of around 4 miles, Proteus reduces the fraction of a viewing session encountering rebuffering from 14.33% to 1.57%, while also significantly improving well-accepted composite video delivery metrics. Overall, our results show promise for enabling video streaming with dynamic UAS networks at long-range distances.

In recent years, we have seen significant growth in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), or drones, with many applications involving extensive communication from the UAS to the ground (e.g., sensor data transmission from the UAS). Despite being a different, and significantly more challenging environment than traditional networks, there exists limited understanding of UAS networking today, and the implications for applications. In this work, we conduct a long range measurement study of modern UAS over a 2-day period collected from a fixed wing UAS system. We consider both directional and omnidirectional antennas operating with Tactical Radios at long range distances. We pay particular attention to the edge cases, where performance is more challenging. Our results provide insights into how the dynamic nature of flight, plane orientation with fixed wing UAS, and the variability of wireless networks, impacts network performance.