A Survey of Wireless Networks for Future Aerial Communications (FACOM)
This study observed that while numerous works focused on cellular technologies to enable connectivity for aerial platforms, a single wireless technology is not sufficient to meet the stringent connectivity demands of the aerial use cases, especially for the piloting operations.
Abstract
Electrification turned over a new leaf in aviation by introducing new types\nof aerial vehicles along with new means of transportation. Addressing a\nplethora of use cases, drones are gaining attention and increasingly appear in\nthe sky. Emerging concepts of flying taxi enable passengers to be transported\nover several tens of kilometers. Therefore, unmanned traffic management systems\nare under development to cope with the complexity of future airspace, thereby\nresulting in unprecedented communication needs. Moreover, the increase in the\nnumber of commercial airplanes pushes the limits of voice-oriented\ncommunications, and future options such as single-pilot operations demand\nrobust connectivity. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive review and\nvision for enabling the connectivity applications of aerial vehicles utilizing\ncurrent and future communication technologies. We begin by categorizing the\nconnectivity use cases per aerial vehicle and analyzing their connectivity\nrequirements. By reviewing more than 500 related studies, we aim for a\ncomprehensive approach to cover wireless communication technologies, and\nprovide an overview of recent findings from the literature toward the\npossibilities and challenges of employing the wireless communication standards.\nAfter analyzing the network architectures, we list the open-source testbed\nplatforms to facilitate future investigations. This study helped us observe\nthat while numerous works focused on cellular technologies for aerial\nplatforms, a single wireless technology is not sufficient to meet the stringent\nconnectivity demands of the aerial use cases. We identified the need of further\ninvestigations on multi-technology network architectures to enable robust\nconnectivity in the sky. Future works should consider suitable technology\ncombinations to develop unified aerial networks that can meet the diverse\nquality of service demands.\n