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Unmanned aerial vehicle assisted communication: applications, challenges, and future outlook

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Abstract

With the advancement of wireless communication technology, the number of wireless network terminals has exploded, and various new business scenarios have emerged. The 6G mobile communication technology not only surpasses 5G standards in terms of transmission rate, delay, power and other performances, but also extends the communication range to multiple fields such as air, ground, ocean, etc., which greatly promotes Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) communication technology research and development. Compared to terrestrial networks, UAV communication has advantages such as high flexibility and easy deployment. However, there are still many problems and challenges in practical applications. In this paper, we will first introduce the functions and application scenarios of UAV communication, then discuss the current challenges and related technical research, and finally look forward to the future development prospects.

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Funding

This work is partially supported by the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation under Grant ZR2023LZH017, ZR2022LZH015, partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 62173345, partially supported by the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Computing Power Network and Information Security, Ministry of Education, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) under Grant 2023ZD010.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Qingdao Institute of Software, College of Computer Science and Technology, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China

    Yilin Li, Zhiqiang Li, Hongxia Zhang & Peiying Zhang

  2. China Academy of Electronic and Information Technology, CETC Academy of Electronics and Information Technology Group Co., Ltd, Beijing, 100041, China

    Yanxian Bi

  3. College of Science, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China

    Jian Wang

  4. Key Laboratory of Computing Power Network and Information Security, Ministry of Education, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan, 250013, China

    Peiying Zhang

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  1. Yilin Li
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Yilin Li, Yanxian Bi and Zhiqiang Li wrote the main manuscript text. Jian Wang, Hongxia Zhang and Peiying Zhang provided resources and information. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Li, Y., Bi, Y., Wang, J. et al. Unmanned aerial vehicle assisted communication: applications, challenges, and future outlook. Cluster Comput 27, 13187–13202 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-024-04631-z

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