A Survey on Integrating UAVs into Public Safety Networks: Advantages and Potential Risks

Public safety networks (PSNs) are essential for ensuring the well-being and security of communities during man-made and natural disasters, making them of significant interest for governments worldwide. PSNs encompass more than post-disaster relief; they are also responsible for pre-disaster prevention and search and rescue (SAR) operations during disasters. Despite significant efforts, PSNs still face challenges such as limited monitoring/search ranges and response delays. Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have gained considerable attention and emerged as a vital research area in next-generation wireless networks. They are expected to enhance communications for cost-effective, reliable, and flexible applications, such as rapid deployment in post-disaster communication relief scenarios, large monitoring areas due to aerial views in traffic control and environmental monitoring scenarios, providing additional capacity in emergency and temporary event scenarios, and remote medical supply delivery in emergency aid scenarios. This survey reviews recent efforts on integrating UAVs in PSNs, discussing current techniques without UAVs and associated issues, as well as the advantages for solving each aforementioned issue and the open problems of using UAVs in various application scenarios. Furthermore, we explore potential risks, such as distraction and misuse, and self limitations of UAVs based on recent incidents and news, offering solutions that could serve as promising future research topics.