Flying ad hoc network applications, mobility models, routing protocols, and challenges: a review

Abstract

Applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are rapidly increasing in surveillance, disaster management, precision agriculture, logistics, environmental monitoring, and intelligent transportation systems. UAVs/drones have made their way towards the application of ad hoc networks. Multiple interconnected UAVs flying together have presented us with a new type of ad hoc network known as flying ad hoc networks (FANETs). While multiple small UAVs acting as a FANET offer a lot of benefits, there are also several challenges concerning this type of network. This study presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of FANET technologies by reviewing recent literature published between 2017 and 2025 from IEEE Xplore, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases. A structured review methodology based on inclusion and exclusion criteria was adopted to analyze more than 150 research articles. The study presents a comprehensive taxonomy of FANET mobility models and routing protocols, along with a comparative analysis of communication architectures, trajectory optimization methods, and implementation challenges. The findings reveal that routing efficiency, adaptive mobility models, secure communication, energy optimization, and scalable architectures are the major determinants of FANET performance. This article concludes that good connectivity, improved security, effective routing, carefully selected mobility models, and the architecture of FANET nodes are key parameters for obtaining optimal results.