Secure communication in IOT-based UAV networks: A systematic survey

Abstract

IoT (Internet of Things) has revolutionized the world with its applications like home automation, transportation, agriculture, etc. IoT-based Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks are an emerging field that introduces the UAV network with the power of the Internet.IoT-based UAV networks are a network of interconnected UAVs which are then equipped with sensors, a microcontroller to exchange collected data with each other, and a GCS (Ground Control Station) over the internet. IoT-based UAV network system is used for surveillance, monitoring, payload delivery, and much more which generate a plethora of sensitive information which can be obtained by adversaries in the middle. The communication between UAVs and GCS is vulnerable to security threats using jamming and eavesdropping attacks. The message between UAV and GCS is not enciphered which makes them error-prone. Attacks like GPS (Global Positioning System) spoofing can be possible by sending fake coordinates to trick UAV’s control. Although much effort has been made toward UAV security. However, there is a dearth of descriptive reviews on secure communication in IoT-based UAV networks. The purpose of this paper is to find and examine peer-reviewed literature that discusses previous six-year established papers with existing attacks such as physical, and logical attacks with suggested solutions such as trajectory planning, lightweight schemes, solutions based on blockchain, quantum cryptography, etc. This paper analyzes the secure communication network between UAVs by systematically answering research questions based on the research methodology for the relevant study. Finally, the paper addresses several issues and guidelines for future research.