A Comprehensive Survey on Current Literature, Standards, Applications and Projects of Self-Organizing Aerial Ad Hoc Network (AANET) in Smart Cities

Abstract

Abstract : In the last few decades, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been introduced aiming to bring more comfort to human life by integrating smartness into daily objects, resulting in the idea of the smart city. Guaranteeing the well-being of residents and assessing industry and urban planning from an ecological and sustainable perspective are the main goals for the smart city. Great potentials are brought to the public and civil areas by the Aerial Ad Hoc Network (AANET) concept, especially in applications that are risky to human lives. AANET, like any emerging technology, comes with many challenges that have to be overcome to be employed efficiently. In this paper, we make a detailed survey on current literature, standards, and projects of selforganizing AANET in smart cities. Also, we intend to present a profound knowledge of this active research area by identifying features, design characteristics, architectures, routing protocols, and security aspects for the design and implementation of self-organizing AANET. Furthermore, we discuss existing solutions, indicate assessment metrics along with current applications, and highlight the main research scope for further developments. This article surveys the work done toward AANET-related outstanding issues, intending to encourage further research in this field.