Engineering and Technology
| Open Access |
DOI: Routing Strategies In Fanet Networks: A Systematic Review Of Protocol Families, Performance Indicators, And Research Gaps
Jolimbetova E.D. , PhD student, TUIT named after Al-Khwarizmi, UzbekistanAbstract
Flying Ad hoc Networks (FANETs) are formed by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that communicate over wireless links without fixed infrastructure. High node mobility, frequent topology changes and the three-dimensional nature of the environment make routing a challenging task. This paper presents a compact systematic review of routing strategies in FANETs. We classify existing protocols into five main families: topological (proactive, reactive and hybrid), geographic (position-based), cluster-based (hierarchical), opportunistic (delay-tolerant) and intelligent (AI-based and bio-inspired). Typical performance indicators such as packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, throughput, routing overhead and energy consumption are summarized, and their relationship with different protocol classes is discussed. The analysis shows that most existing solutions are adaptations of MANET/VANET algorithms and usually optimize only a subset of metrics. Key research gaps include energy-aware routing, stable operation under extreme mobility and sparse topologies, and deeper integration of learning-based methods. The review provides a concise overview of current approaches and outlines directions for future research in FANET routing.
Keywords
FANET, unmanned aerial vehicles, ad-hoc networks
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