Drone Assisted Vehicular Networks: Architecture, Challenges and Opportunities

This article introduces the DAVN, which provides ubiquitous connections for vehicles by efficiently integrating the communication and networking technologies of drones and connected vehicles. Specifically, we first propose a comprehensive architecture of the DAVN and outline its potential services. By cooperating with vehicles and infrastructures, drones can improve vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity, infrastructure coverage, network information collection ability, and network interworking efficiency. We then present the challenges and research opportunities of DAVNs. In addition, a case study is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of DAVNs by leveraging our designed simulation platform. Simulation results demonstrate that the performance of vehicular networks can be significantly enhanced with the proposed DAVN architecture.