IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Flying Ad Hoc Networks: Challenges, Potentials, Future Applications, and Way Forward

Abstract

The theory and operations of data dissemination in wireless scenarios have endless applications based on the characteristics of underlying networks. The wireless networks that do not rely on any pre-existing infrastructure such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs), wireless mesh networks (WMNs), wireless body area networks (WBANs), or Mobile Ad hoc Networks have gained much attention due to their smart applications. Such types of wireless networks are categorized under wireless ad hoc networks with no central administration. With the rapid development in the applications of such types of ad hoc networks, Flying Ad hoc networks, commonly known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have recently captured the attention of vendors and investors due to the flying nature of the entities. The UAV is officially called drone, which has the ability to fly without a human pilot aboard. The network of drones or UAVs has commercially gained popularity because of its applications such as surveillance, agriculture, and photography. For instance, the new applications that are being developed for Flying Ad hoc Network (FANET) bring up new challenges such as multipath propagations, severe shadowing, traffic load balancing, mobility, congestion, and high error rates, which usually result in degradation of the network. On the contrary, the applications developed and enabled in FANET may also result in collision with commercial flights due to the highlighted challenges.