Flying Ad-Hoc Networks: Technological and Social Implications

With the world turning into a global village due to technological advancements, automation in all aspects of life is gaining momentum. Wireless technologies address the everincreasing demands of portable and flexible communications. Wireless ad-hoc networks, which allow communication between devices without the need for any central infrastructure, are gaining significance, particularly for monitoring and surveillance applications. A relatively new research area of ad-hoc networks is flying ad-hoc networks (FANETs), governing the autonomous movement of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) 1. In such networks multiple UAVs are allowed to communicate so that an ad-hoc network is established between them. All UAVs in the network carry UAV-to-UAV communication and only groups of UAVs interact with the ground station. This feature eliminates the need for deployment of complex hardware in each UAV. Moreover, even if one of the UAV communication links breaks down; there is no link breakage with the base station due to the ad-hoc network between UAVs.