Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and IoT as Enabling Technologies for 5G: Frameworks, Applications and Challenges

From the very beginning the Internet was envisioned to provide connections—first between people and the documents they used, now not only among people but between machines as well. And with the current pace of technology development, Gartner’s predictions rise to include 26 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020 with a global economic added value of $1.9 trillion. Among these the frontline is held by self-driving cars and connected cars. The focus of the chapter is how unmanned aerial vehicles, also simply called drones, can be integrated together with the IoT to become one of the major enablers of 5G and Beyond 5G (B5G) networks. A short introduction into the topic covering the main functionality, advantages and challenges of UAVs is followed by discussing the complementary roles that drones and IoT devices can have in the communication canopy. The second part will concentrate on specific architectural issues, discussing different frameworks and network models that can accommodate UAV and IoT integration. The role of UAVs as major entities in the 5G communication network, the promises and challenges are discussed in detail. Following is an overview of some of the most recent applications based on merging these two technologies, including two ongoing projects.