Survey of Important Issues in UAV Communication Networks
Not on the map. Why?
Abstract (arXiv)
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have enormous potential in the public and civil domains. These are particularly useful in applications where human lives would otherwise be endangered. Multi-UAV systems can collaboratively complete missions more efficiently and economically as compared to single UAV systems. However, there are many issues to be resolved before effective use of UAVs can be made to provide stable and reliable context-specific networks. Much of the work carried out in the areas of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs), and Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) does not address the unique characteristics of the UAV networks. UAV networks may vary from slow dynamic to dynamic; have intermittent links and fluid topology. While it is believed that ad hoc mesh network would be most suitable for UAV networks yet the architecture of multi-UAV networks has been an understudied area. Software Defined Networking (SDN) could facilitate flexible deployment and management of new services and help reduce cost, increase security and availability in networks. Routing demands of UAV networks go beyond the needs of MANETS and VANETS. Protocols are required that would adapt to high mobility, dynamic topology, intermittent links, power constraints and changing link quality. UAVs may fail and the network may get partitioned making delay and disruption tolerance an important design consideration. Limited life of the node and dynamicity of the network leads to the requirement of seamless handovers where researchers are looking at the work done in the areas of MANETs and VANETs, but the jury is still out. As energy supply on UAVs is limited, protocols in various layers should contribute towards greening of the network. This article surveys the work done towards all of these outstanding issues, relating to this new class of networks, so as to spur further research in these areas.
Key facts. Cited by 22 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 28 Mar 2016.
Builds on
No reference list yet.
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2021: 3; 2022: 6; 2023: 4; 2024: 3; 2025: 4; 2026: 2.
22 papers.
Sort:
By area:
- 2021Split Computing and Early Exiting for Deep Learning Applications: Survey and Research Challengescited by 114
- 2022Machine Learning-Aided Operations and Communications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Contemporary Surveycited by 27
- 2022Aerial Monocular 3D Object Detectioncited by 23
- 2022Cooperative Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Reliable and Energy-Efficient Mobile Access via Multi-UAV Controlcited by 5
- 2025Scalable UAV Multi-Hop Networking via Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning with Large Language Modelscited by 4
- 2021Fully-echoed Q-routing with Simulated Annealing Inference for Flying Adhoc Networkscited by 3
- 2022Space-Air-Ground Integrated Multi-domain Network Resource Orchestration based on Virtual Network Architecture: a DRL Methodcited by 3
- 2023Integrated Sensing, Computation, and Communication for UAV-assisted Federated Edge Learningcited by 3
- 2023Routing Recovery for UAV Networks with Deliberate Attacks: A Reinforcement Learning based Approachcited by 3
- 2024Cluster-Based Multi-Agent Task Scheduling for Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networkscited by 3
- 2021Multi-UAV Mobile Edge Computing and Path Planning Platform based on Reinforcement Learningcited by 2
- 2022Fast and computationally efficient generative adversarial network algorithm for unmanned aerial vehicle-based network coverage optimizationcited by 2
10 more
- 2023Physics-Based Trajectory Design for Cellular-Connected UAV in Rainy Environments Based on Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
- 2025Safeguarding connected autonomous vehicle communication: Protocols, intra- and inter-vehicular attacks and defensescited by 1
- 2022FedBA: Non-IID Federated Learning Framework in UAV Networkscited by 0
- 2023SkyCharge: Deploying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Dynamic Load Optimization in Solar Small Cell 5G Networkscited by 0
- 2024A Task-Driven Multi-UAV Coalition Formation Mechanismcited by 0
- 2024Effective Intrusion Detection for UAV Communications using Autoencoder-based Feature Extraction and Machine Learning Approachcited by 0
- 2025Graph Neural Network Aided Deep Reinforcement Learning for Resource Allocation in Dynamic Terahertz UAV Networkscited by 0
- 2025Timely Information Updating for Mobile Devices Without and With ML Advicecited by 0
- 2026TASER: Task-Aware Spectral Energy Refine for Backdoor Suppression in UAV Swarms Decentralized Federated Learningcited by 0
- 2026Resource-Efficient Distributed Recursive Gaussian Processescited by 0
- 2026Resource-Efficient Distributed Recursive Gaussian Processes22 Sep 2026
- 2026TASER: Task-Aware Spectral Energy Refine for Backdoor Suppression in UAV Swarms Decentralized Federated Learning10 Mar 2026
- 2025Timely Information Updating for Mobile Devices Without and With ML Advice19 Dec 2025
- 2025Scalable UAV Multi-Hop Networking via Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning with Large Language Models13 May 2025
- 2025Graph Neural Network Aided Deep Reinforcement Learning for Resource Allocation in Dynamic Terahertz UAV Networks8 May 2025
- 2025Safeguarding connected autonomous vehicle communication: Protocols, intra- and inter-vehicular attacks and defenses6 Feb 2025
- 2024Cluster-Based Multi-Agent Task Scheduling for Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks14 Dec 2024
- 2024Effective Intrusion Detection for UAV Communications using Autoencoder-based Feature Extraction and Machine Learning Approach1 Oct 2024
- 2024A Task-Driven Multi-UAV Coalition Formation Mechanism8 Mar 2024
- 2023SkyCharge: Deploying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Dynamic Load Optimization in Solar Small Cell 5G Networks21 Nov 2023
- 2023Physics-Based Trajectory Design for Cellular-Connected UAV in Rainy Environments Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning31 Aug 2023
- 2023Routing Recovery for UAV Networks with Deliberate Attacks: A Reinforcement Learning based Approach14 Aug 2023
10 more
- 2023Integrated Sensing, Computation, and Communication for UAV-assisted Federated Edge Learning5 Jun 2023
- 2022Machine Learning-Aided Operations and Communications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Contemporary Survey7 Nov 2022
- 2022FedBA: Non-IID Federated Learning Framework in UAV Networks10 Oct 2022
- 2022Cooperative Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Reliable and Energy-Efficient Mobile Access via Multi-UAV Control3 Oct 2022
- 2022Aerial Monocular 3D Object Detection8 Aug 2022
- 2022Fast and computationally efficient generative adversarial network algorithm for unmanned aerial vehicle-based network coverage optimization25 Mar 2022
- 2022Space-Air-Ground Integrated Multi-domain Network Resource Orchestration based on Virtual Network Architecture: a DRL Method3 Feb 2022
- 2021Fully-echoed Q-routing with Simulated Annealing Inference for Flying Adhoc Networks23 Mar 2021
- 2021Split Computing and Early Exiting for Deep Learning Applications: Survey and Research Challenges8 Mar 2021
- 2021Multi-UAV Mobile Edge Computing and Path Planning Platform based on Reinforcement Learning3 Feb 2021
- 2022Machine Learning-Aided Operations and Communications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Contemporary Surveycited by 27
- 2022Aerial Monocular 3D Object Detectioncited by 23
- 2022Cooperative Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Reliable and Energy-Efficient Mobile Access via Multi-UAV Controlcited by 5
- 2021Fully-echoed Q-routing with Simulated Annealing Inference for Flying Adhoc Networkscited by 3
- 2022Space-Air-Ground Integrated Multi-domain Network Resource Orchestration based on Virtual Network Architecture: a DRL Methodcited by 3
- 2023Integrated Sensing, Computation, and Communication for UAV-assisted Federated Edge Learningcited by 3
- 2023Routing Recovery for UAV Networks with Deliberate Attacks: A Reinforcement Learning based Approachcited by 3
- 2024Cluster-Based Multi-Agent Task Scheduling for Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networkscited by 3
- 2021Multi-UAV Mobile Edge Computing and Path Planning Platform based on Reinforcement Learningcited by 2
- 2022Fast and computationally efficient generative adversarial network algorithm for unmanned aerial vehicle-based network coverage optimizationcited by 2
- 2023Physics-Based Trajectory Design for Cellular-Connected UAV in Rainy Environments Based on Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
- 2025Safeguarding connected autonomous vehicle communication: Protocols, intra- and inter-vehicular attacks and defensescited by 1
12 most cited of 20 All 20 (JSON)
- 2026Resource-Efficient Distributed Recursive Gaussian Processes22 Sep 2026
- 2026TASER: Task-Aware Spectral Energy Refine for Backdoor Suppression in UAV Swarms Decentralized Federated Learning10 Mar 2026
- 2025Timely Information Updating for Mobile Devices Without and With ML Advice19 Dec 2025
- 2025Graph Neural Network Aided Deep Reinforcement Learning for Resource Allocation in Dynamic Terahertz UAV Networks8 May 2025
- 2025Safeguarding connected autonomous vehicle communication: Protocols, intra- and inter-vehicular attacks and defenses6 Feb 2025
- 2024Cluster-Based Multi-Agent Task Scheduling for Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks14 Dec 2024
- 2024Effective Intrusion Detection for UAV Communications using Autoencoder-based Feature Extraction and Machine Learning Approach1 Oct 2024
- 2024A Task-Driven Multi-UAV Coalition Formation Mechanism8 Mar 2024
- 2023SkyCharge: Deploying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Dynamic Load Optimization in Solar Small Cell 5G Networks21 Nov 2023
- 2023Physics-Based Trajectory Design for Cellular-Connected UAV in Rainy Environments Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning31 Aug 2023
- 2023Routing Recovery for UAV Networks with Deliberate Attacks: A Reinforcement Learning based Approach14 Aug 2023
- 2023Integrated Sensing, Computation, and Communication for UAV-assisted Federated Edge Learning5 Jun 2023
12 newest of 20 All 20 (JSON)