Autonomous Flying Ad-Hoc Networks

Preface

The flying ad hoc network (FANET) is becoming popular as it involves unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which can be useful in urban surveillance, disaster management, and rescue operations. The UAVs can be useful in various areas such as agriculture, surveillance, and telecommunications. The UAVs can be categorized by flight types, i.e. autonomous or remote, size, types of wings, and communication capabilities. The wings of UAVs are fixed and rotatory. The FANET is a subset of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), which are composed of mobile devices like laptops, cellular phones, and sensor devices. This also includes vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), which are composed of cars, buses, and ambulances based on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside infrastructure. The FANET shares some common characteristics of MANETs and VANETs, but nodes are more mobile in FANETs. The mobility degree of nodes in FANETs is higher than the mobility degree of nodes in MANETs and VANETs nodes. The MANETs or VANETs are walking people or vehicles on roads, but FANETs nodes fly in the sky. The topology changes frequently in FANETs, and FANETs create peer-to-peer networks for the coordination and collaboration of UAVs. In FANETs, a swarm of UAVs connect together locally with a base station in a nearby environment to get information. The UAVs can fly on a pre-programmed flight pilot or may be operated on complex automation systems, which provide versatility and flexibility during implementation ...