Advances in Internet of Drones: Applications, Communication Infrastructures, Architectures, and Protocols for FANETs

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have transformed a variety of industries, including surveillance, geology, agriculture, and disaster management. The development of dependable and scalable communication systems, particularly in Flying Ad Hoc Networks (FANETs), is a critical enabler of efficient UAV operation. FANETs are dynamic and self-organizing networks that enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to interact with one another, base stations, and satellite systems, allowing for coordinated operations. Despite the advancements in UAV FANETs, the field is still in its early stages, notably in terms of communication models, architectural design, and protocol optimization for high mobility, energy economy, low latency, and dependable data sharing.

The Special Issue will feature papers that address the problems and potential of establishing robust, effective, and scalable communication networks for UAV FANETs. It seeks to bring together new research contributions from academia and industry, enabling cooperation and innovation in this rapidly growing sector.

Topics of Interest

The scope of the Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following:

1. Communication Models:

• Novel communication paradigms and infrastructures designed for UAV FANETs;
• analytic models for evaluating IoD performance;
• channel modeling and propagation characteristics in high-mobility UAV networks.

2. Architectures:

• Distributed and centralized network architectures for FANETs;
• hybrid UAV networks integrating FANETs with terrestrial and satellite communication systems;
• cloud-based and edge-based architectures for UAV swarm management;
• software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) for FANETs.

3. Protocols:

• Optimized FANET protocols for dynamic topology under mobility constraints;
• cross-layer design for optimizing communication performance in FANETs;
• secure and privacy-preserving communication protocols;
• energy-efficient communication protocols for battery-constrained UAVs.

4. Applications:

• UAV swarm interoperability and communication infrastructures;
• FANETs for real-time applications, such as surveillance, search and rescue, and smart cities;
• communication challenges in autonomous UAV fleets for delivery services;
• IoT integration and machine-to-machine communication for UAV networks.

5. Simulation, Emulation, and Testbed Development:

• Testbeds and experimental setups for FANET/IoD communication research;
• tools and platforms for simulating IoD/FANETs and UAV-based communication;
• real-world case studies and field experiments.

6. Challenges and Future Directions:

• Scalability and QoS in large UAV swarms;
• AI and machine learning for network optimization in IoD/FANETs;
• standardization and regulatory challenges for UAV communication systems.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that promote cutting-edge research in the field of Internet of Drones (IoD) and UAV FANET communication. By focusing on infrastructure designs, innovative models, architectures, and protocols, we hope to accelerate the development of high-performance UAV networks for various applications.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Wilfried Yves Hamilton Adoni
Dr. Richard Gloaguen
Dr. Qi Lu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Internet of Drones
• FANET
• architecture
• aerial wireless networks
• drone communication
• swarm communication