# Enabling Multi-Mission Interoperable UAS Using Data-Centric Communications
## 4 Data-Centric Communications in UAS Scenarios  
In the following, we showcase the potential of using data-centric approach to support interoperation, mission adaptability and efficient data dissemination in future UAS deployments. To this end, we consider a set of illustrative use cases represented succinctly in Figure 1. In these use cases, UAS platforms are utilized to manage emergency situations where the network infrastructure, which is fundamental to enable communications and coordinate the operations of emergency response teams, is inexistent or insufficient to achieve these goals. Examples of these use cases are fire extinction activities in dense urban areas, management of extreme situations caused by natural or manmade disasters, or search and rescue operations in remote locations.  
In such these cases, UAS platforms would allow supporting the agile deployment of a number of small-sized UAVs over the affected area. These UAVs could be appropriately positioned at fixed geographical locations, being configured to create a wireless network infrastructure within a reduced timeframe. In this network, a set of UAVs would transport wireless communication equipment to serve as access points, while the other aerial vehicles composing the infrastructure would build a network topology, based on wireless data-links, to interconnect the different access points with appropriate redundancy (e.g., these UAVs would behave as network routers). Ground mobile stations, belonging to an emergency response team, would attach to this network infrastructure through any of the available wireless access points, and would use it to exchange data of relevance to the emergency situation, possibly with real-time constraints (e.g., interactive audio/video, images, warnings or other type of messages), thus improving the effectiveness of the field operations. Additional UAVs, equipped with specific-purpose payloads to assist in the management of the emergency situation (e.g., daylight/thermal video cameras and sensors), could be moved and positioned at different locations as required, dynamically obtaining network connectivity from any available wireless access point within their vicinity. Ground mobile stations would interoperate with these specific-purpose UAVs using the aerial network, to request the delivery of video, sensed data or other available information. Additionally, a subset of these ground stations may have access to larger UAVs, e.g., through line-of-sight communications. These UAVs could be used to provide coarse-resolution images and video, covering larger geographical areas, as these may be of utility to enhance the situational awareness in the emergency situation; and/or they could be used as network relays, supporting long-distance data communications with other network locations, e.g., with an emergency response coordination center, or with distant areas where other networks of small-sized UAVs have been deployed. In the following, we compare the service and functionalities offered by DDS with respect to existing IP-based solutions in the aforementioned use cases.  
Figure 1: Scenarios for UAS deployment: e.g., fire extinction, natural disasters or search and rescue.