On the Routing in Flying Ad hoc Networks

The usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is increasing day by day. In recent years, UAVs are being used in increasing number of civil applications, such as policing, fire-fighting, etc in addition to military applications. Instead of using one large UAV, multiple UAVs are nowadays used for higher coverage area and accuracy. Therefore, networking models are required to allow two or more UAV nodes to communicate directly or via relay node(s). Flying Ad-Hoc Networks (FANETs) are formed which is basically an ad hoc network for UAVs. This is relatively a new technology in network family where requirements vary largely from traditional networking model, such as Mobile Ad-hoc Networks and Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks. In this paper, Flying Ad-Hoc Networks are surveyed along with its challenges compared to traditional ad hoc networks. The existing routing protocols for FANETs are then classified into six major categories which are critically analyzed and compared based on various performance criteria. Our comparative analysis will help network engineers in choosing appropriate routing protocols based on the specific scenario where the FANET will be deployed.