A nested-ring exact algorithm for simple basic group communication topology optimization in Multi-USV systems

This paper addresses the optimization problem of simple basic group communication topology (SBGCT) in multi-USV systems. In SBGCT, not only the fewer communication connections with lower communication costs are used to group USVs and establish intra-group and inter-group communication, but also each USV can obtain the data of all the other USVs without search algorithms. A nested-ring exact algorithm (NREA) is proposed to build the communication topology of minimizing the total cost based on minimizing the max cost with a nested-ring shape. The communication cost based on distance, weather, and occlusion impact is designed to evaluate the communication reliability of wireless data transceivers commonly used on USVs. In addition, a strategy of channel allocation is proposed to avoid interfering with the co-channel. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms.