Survey on UAV Communications: Systems, Communication Technologies, Networks, Application

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being used in a wide range of fields, including business, the military, search and rescue, monitoring, and communications, to mention a few. UAVs are also anticipated to be a component of future air travel. Data exchange between (UAVs) along with UAVs and ground stations (GSs), which also heavily rely on aeronautical channels, is necessary to deliver application services. Coverage expansion is a crucial issue to satisfy the demands for improved performance, but it necessitates the nomination of more base or transfer stations. To deploy more stations, an efficient solution must be simple and affordable. Since an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is much more affordable than ground stations and does not require network or cell replanning, it has been suggested as a potential solution to these problems. This would increase network coverage without requiring the existing networks to undergo additional, unnecessary deployment processes. UAVs will be crucial components of 5G and future networks, acting as mobile aggregators, macro base stations, relay stations, and tiny cells. The position or trajectory of UAVs and the resource management of the entire network significantly impact the performance of UAV wireless networks. Still, a lot of problems (like channel modeling, battery capacity, and trajectory optimization) need to be fixed before UAVs can be effectively used to deliver dependable and robust context-specific networks. A significant portion of research in the fields of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) and mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) ignores the special qualities of UAV networks. UAV networks can be intermittently linked, have a fluid architecture, and range in speed from slow to dynamic. This article intends to provide a comprehensive analysis of UAV communication. In the present survey, we focus on issues concerning the overview of various communication paradigms, the characterization of UAV networks, communication systems, and the integration of UAVs into cellular networks. We present significant scenarios establishing direct communication links among UAVs, examining communication technologies and more information, and thoroughly examining the architectures, networking systems, communication protocols, and applications of UAVs.