Special issue on amateur drone and UAV communications and networks

The development of the mini-drones, formally called unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) have captured the attention of hobbyists and the investors due to their enormous applications. Drones have endless commercial applications as well due to the irrelatively small size and ability to fly without an on-board pilot such as in agriculture, photography, surveillance, and numerous public services. The use of drones for achieving high speed wireless communication is one of the most significant applications for next generation communication system (5G). Indeed, drone-based communication network offers encouraging solution to provide wireless connectivity for devices without infrastructure coverage due to e.g., severe shadowing by urban or mountainous terrain, or damage to the communication infrastructure caused by natural disasters.