Flying Ad Hoc Networks

Relying on unmanned autonomous flight control programs, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with radio communication devices have been actively developed around the world. Given their low cost, flexible maneuvering and unmanned operation, UAVs have been widely used in both civilian operations and military missions, including environmental monitoring, emergency communications, express distribution, even military surveillance and attacks, for example. Given that a range of standards and protocols used in terrestrial wireless networks are not applicable to UAV networks, and that some practical constraints such as battery power and no-fly zone hinder the maneuverability capability of a single UAV, we need to explore advanced communication and networking theories and methods for the sake of supporting future ultra-reliable and low-latency applications. Typically, the full potential of UAV network’s functionalities can be tapped with the aid of the cooperation of multiple drones relying on their ad hoc networking, in-network communications and coordinated control. Furthermore, some swarm intelligence models and algorithms conceived for dynamic negotiation, path programming, formation flight and task assignment of multiple cooperative drones are also beneficial in terms of extending UAV’s functionalities and coverage, as well as of increasing their efficiency. We call the networking and cooperation of multiple drones as the terminology ‘flying ad hoc network (FANET)’, and there indeed are numerous new challenges to be overcome before the idespread of so-called heterogeneous FANETs. In this book, we examine a range of technical issues in FANETs, from physical-layer channel modeling to MAC-layer resource allocation, while also introducing readers to UAV aided mobile edge computing techniques.

Jingjing Wang (S'14-M'19-SM’21) is currently an associate professor in School of Cyber Science and Technology, Beihang University. He received his B.S. degree in Electronic Information Engineering from Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning, China in 2014 and the Ph.D. degree in Information and Communication Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 2019, both with the highest honors. From 2017 to 2018, he visited the Next Generation Wireless Group chaired by Prof. Lajos Hanzo, University of Southampton, UK. Dr. Wang His research interests include AI enhanced next-generation wireless networks, swarm intelligence and confrontation. He has published over 100 IEEE Journal/Conference papers. Dr. Wang has served as an Editor of IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, and also served as a member of the technical program committee for a number of international conferences. Dr. Wang was the recipient of the Best Journal Paper Award of IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on Green Communications & Computing in 2018, the Best Paper Award of IEEE ICC and IWCMC in 2019.

Chunxiao Jiang (S'09-M'13-SM'15) is an associate professor in School of Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University. He received the B.S. degree in information engineering from Beihang University, Beijing in 2008 and the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing in 2013, both with the highest honors. From 2011 to 2012 (as a Joint Ph.D) and 2013 to 2016 (as a Postdoc), he was in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Maryland College Park under the supervision of Prof. K. J. Ray Liu. His research interests include application of game theory, optimization, and statistical theories to communication, networking, and resource allocation problems, in particular space networks and heterogeneous networks. Dr. Jiang has served as an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Wireless Communications, IEEE Network, IEEE Communications Letters, and a Guest Editor of IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering and IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking. He has also served as a member of the technical program committee as well as the Symposium Chair for a number of international conferences, including IEEE Globecom 2021 Symposium Chair, IEEE CNS 2020 Publication Chair, IEEE WCSP 2019 Symposium Chair, IEEE ICC 2018 Symposium Co-Chair, IWCMC 2020/19/18 Symposium Chair, WiMob 2018 Publicity Chair, ICCC 2018 Workshop Co-Chair, and IEEE ICC 2017 Workshop Co-Chair. Dr. Jiang is the recipient of the Best Paper Award from IEEE GLOBECOM in 2013, the Best Student Paper Award from IEEE GlobalSIP in 2015, IEEE Communications Society Young Author Best Paper Award in 2017, the Best Paper Award IWCMC in 2017, IEEE ComSoc TC Best Journal Paper Award of the IEEE ComSoc TC on Green Communications & Computing 2018, IEEE ComSoc TC Best Journal Paper Award of the IEEE ComSoc TC on Communications Systems Integration and Modeling 2018, the Best Paper Award from ICC 2019, IEEE VTS Early Career Award 2020, IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Best Young Researcher Award 2020, and IEEE VTS Distinguished Lecturer 2021. He received the Chinese National Second Prize in Technical Inventions Award in 2018 and Natural Science Foundation of China Excellent Young Scientists Fund Award in 2019. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Fellow of IET.