Submission Deadline: 01 February 2023 (closed)
The use of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) has become very common in the last two decades for various application scenarios including civilian and military purposes. A UAV-mounted base station in an aerial network can be called a flying antenna which can work as a hub between the backhaul network and the access network. By backhaul, we usually mean the side of the network that communicates with the global Internet while the access network is related to the users that connects subscribers to a particular service provider or another network (or, the Internet) through a carrier network. Indeed, we have been observing various new models and integration approaches of different types of old, existing and futuristic networks. One such example is the effort of integration of aerial networks with 5G terrestrial networks. The idea is that futuristic networks would require smooth aerial-ground wireless communications for broader services. Due to the high altitude from the ground, traditional satellite communications systems such as geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) are unable to provide the desired services. However, in the recent time, there are some efforts of providing massive uninterrupted broadband wireless connectivity in 5G and beyond networks with the aid of constellation of numerous satellites in low earth orbit (LEO). While the researchers are trying to resolve various issues of inter-network communications, security, QoS (Quality of Service), latency, and so on, the aerospace network devices at high altitude platforms (HAPs), like unmanned airships or airplanes and low altitude platforms (LAPs) devices like drones, balloons, etc. can come into real help. Interestingly, while the presence of various types of radiofrequencies can support such networks, there could also be adverse health impacts of these networks (alongside the other technical issues and challenges). The question is whether the benefit outweighs the risk.
In this special issue, our objective is to collate the most recent advances in the areas of aerial-ground networks and the supporting technologies. We would like to offer a platform to the researchers to share their findings, either of concrete technical kind or survey. The topics of interest are as noted below (separately). However, this list should not be considered exhaustive.
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