# Communication Manager for Hyper-Connected RPAS Environments
## 4 Validation: From the Lab to the Air
### Final Integration and Flights  
Once the development of the CIM was tested and validated, the next stage was the installation on top of the real RPAS that will be used for the Labyrinth project use cases.  
This subsection describes the CIM integration and configuration procedure in one of the members of the consortium RPA, the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA), a research institute from the Spanish Ministry of Defense. It presents the results from the first experiments developed at their premises, intending to validate the correct  
Figure 6: Load balancing experiment. (**a**) No load balancing (traffic received at the RPS); (**b**) load balancing (traffic received at the RPS).  
functionality of the CIM and the ease of transferring the implemented software to different aerial platforms.  
Real RPS  
First, the CIM was installed on one of INTA's RPAs, the DJI M600 (DJI M600: [[https://www.dji.com/es/matrice600](https://www.dji.com/es/matrice600)]([https://www.dji.com/es/matrice600](https://www.dji.com/es/matrice600)) (accessed on 14 January 2023)), and in the INTA's RPS. This RPA carries a DJI Manifold (DJI Manifold: [[https://www.dji.com/es/manifold-2](https://www.dji.com/es/manifold-2)]([https://www.dji.com/es/manifold-2](https://www.dji.com/es/manifold-2)) (accessed on 14 January 2023)) Single-Board Computer (SBC) as a payload, allowing further developments associated with the project, such as adding different communication alternatives, loading the different flying routes, or making periodical reports to UTM. The DJI Manifold is an ideal platform to introduce the CIM software in charge of selecting the best communication alternative at any given moment.  
The CIM, located in the INTA's RPA and RPS, is first in charge of enabling connectivity through each interface, as explained in Section 3. In this particular RPA, there are three enabled alternatives to communicate between the RPA and the RPS: Wi-Fi, proprietary RF (Silvus Technologies: [[https://silvustechnologies.com/](https://silvustechnologies.com/)]([https://silvustechnologies.com/](https://silvustechnologies.com/)) (accessed on 14 January 2023)), and 4G/LTE.  
Once the connectivity is enabled, the CIM selects the alternative to use at any moment. For this experiment (ground trials at INTA premises), it has been decided that the CIM strategy will choose the communication channel according to a fixed priority determined by experienced INTA operators: first Wi-Fi, secondly RF, and finally 4G/LTE, as long as they are available.  
The RPA telemetry has been sent to the RPS to verify the correct operation while manually forcing a switching-off of the communication interfaces to produce a CIM reaction. As shown in Figure 7, around 60 s, we switched off the Wi-Fi, so the CIM changes the communication interface to the Silvus RF. Around 250 s, we switched off the RF, so the CIM changed the communication interface to 4G/LTE. In conclusion, the telemetry flow changes as soon as an interface is unavailable. With this test, we have demonstrated the ability to transfer the developments to real INTA equipment, and on the other hand, we have demonstrated its correct operation.