A Survey on UAV-Aided Maritime Communications: Deployment Considerations, Applications, and Future Challenges

Maritime activities represent a major domain of economic growth with several emerging maritime Internet of Things use cases, such as smart ports, autonomous navigation, and ocean monitoring systems. The major enabler for this exciting ecosystem is the provision of broadband, low-delay, and reliable wireless coverage to the ever-increasing number of vessels, buoys, platforms, sensors, and actuators. Towards this end, the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in maritime communications introduces an aerial dimension to wireless connectivity going above and beyond current deployments, which are mainly relying on shore-based base stations with limited coverage and satellite links with high latency. Considering the potential of UAV-aided wireless communications, this survey presents the state-of-the-art in UAV-aided maritime communications, which, in general, are based on both conventional optimization and machine-learning-aided approaches. More specifically, relevant UAV-based network architectures are discussed together with the role of their building blocks. Then, physical-layer, resource management, and cloud/edge computing and caching UAV-aided solutions in maritime environments are discussed and grouped based on their performance targets. Moreover, as UAVs are characterized by flexible deployment with high re-positioning capabilities, studies on UAV trajectory optimization for maritime applications are thoroughly discussed. In addition, aiming at shedding light on the current status of real-world deployments, experimental studies on UAV-aided maritime communications are presented and implementation details are given. Finally, several important open issues in the area of UAV-aided maritime communications are given, related to the integration of sixth generation (6G) advancements

Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges

With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected. Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services. Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs. Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications, conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage, and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and atmosphere conditions, are also discussed

Synergizing airborne non-terrestrial networks and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces-aided 6G IoT

On the one hand, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) emerge as a promising solution to meet the demand for higher data rates, improved coverage, and efficient spectrum utilization. On the other hand, Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) offer unprecedented possibilities for global connectivity. Moreover, the NTN can also support the upsurge in the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices by providing reliable and ubiquitous connectivity. Although NTNs have shown promising results, there are several challenges associated with their usage, such as signal propagation delays, interference, security, etc. In this article, we have discussed the possibilities of integrating RIS with an NTN platform to overcome the issues associated with NTN. Furthermore, through experimental validation, we have demonstrated that the RIS-assisted NTN can play a pivotal role in improving the performance of the entire communication system

Synergizing Airborne Non-Terrestrial Networks and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces-Aided 6G IoT

On the one hand, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) emerge as a promising solution to meet the demand for higher data rates, improved coverage, and efficient spectrum utilization. On the other hand, Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) offer unprecedented possibilities for global connectivity. Moreover, the NTN can also support the upsurge in the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices by providing reliable and ubiquitous connectivity. Although NTNs have shown promising results, there are several challenges associated with their usage, such as signal propagation delays, interference, security, etc. In this article, we have discussed the possibilities of integrating RIS with an NTN platform to overcome the issues associated with NTN. Furthermore, through experimental validation, we have demonstrated that the RIS-assisted NTN can play a pivotal role in improving the performance of the entire communication system.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Optical wireless communication systems

The emerging field of optical wireless communication (OWC) systems is seen as potential complementary technology to the radio frequency wireless communications in certain applications. It is deemed as a possible technology in the future 5th Generation communication networks to address the spectrum congestion and improve the system's capacity. More research and developments in OWC is still needed in order for it to be adopted in current and future communication systems. This special issue brings together research papers on OWC covering free space optic, visible communications and ultraviolet communications

Underwater acoustic localisation and referencing: an enhanced subsurface positioning method for archaeological data collection of submerged cultural resources

Traditional and modern optical methods of maritime archaeological site documentation typically lack absolute spatial information as part of submerged cultural heritage surveys in locations where shore-based satellite positioning technologies are not applicable for use. This is due to the inability to use satellite positioning receivers beneath the water surface as a result of the high attenuation rate of electromagnetic waves in a marine environment. The defence and offshore energy industries solved this problem through the incorporation of acoustic ranging systems used in conjunction with satellite positioning receivers. Underwater acoustic ranging equipment, such as ultra-short baseline (USBL) and long baseline (LBL) systems, are commonly used in geophysical surveys and marine construction projects to provide subsurface positioning information of underwater instrumentation such as towed sonar arrays, remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs), and divers. Satellite positioning and underwater acoustic ranging configurations have been in continuous use for more than three decades, and such equipment systems are readily available throughout the world for commercial and scientific applications. Despite the proven effectiveness and accessibility of these systems, maritime archaeology fieldwork practices have not successfully integrated these systems into established underwater data collection techniques. This thesis was established to determine if traditional and modern optical maritime archaeological data collection techniques are capable of being supplemented by a tandem satellite positioning system and USBL acoustic ranging configuration to provide underwater positioning information in accordance with universally-accepted geophysical surveying spatial and equipment standards, such as those published by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Historic England, and others. In the absence of recognised spatial standards within the maritime archaeology community, this thesis relied on geophysical surveying spatial and equipment standards as the research parameters upon which the Underwater Acoustic Localisation and Referencing (UALR) methodology was developed. The UALR methodology presented in this thesis successfully incorporated a GPS/USBL configuration for providing subsurface latitude and longitude coordinates for ground control point positions for traditional and modern optical archaeological data collection techniques. The collected datasets were georeferenced using underwater spatial information gathered by the UALR methodology process, and demonstrated that these methods are capable of achieving spatial accuracy and measurement precision in accordance with geophysical surveying specifications. By adhering to these standards, the UALR methodology is applicable for use by archaeologists in support of geophysical surveying operations throughout the world

Adoption of vehicular ad hoc networking protocols by networked robots

This paper focuses on the utilization of wireless networking in the robotics domain. Many researchers have already equipped their robots with wireless communication capabilities, stimulated by the observation that multi-robot systems tend to have several advantages over their single-robot counterparts. Typically, this integration of wireless communication is tackled in a quite pragmatic manner, only a few authors presented novel Robotic Ad Hoc Network (RANET) protocols that were designed specifically with robotic use cases in mind. This is in sharp contrast with the domain of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). This observation is the starting point of this paper. If the results of previous efforts focusing on VANET protocols could be reused in the RANET domain, this could lead to rapid progress in the field of networked robots. To investigate this possibility, this paper provides a thorough overview of the related work in the domain of robotic and vehicular ad hoc networks. Based on this information, an exhaustive list of requirements is defined for both types. It is concluded that the most significant difference lies in the fact that VANET protocols are oriented towards low throughput messaging, while RANET protocols have to support high throughput media streaming as well. Although not always with equal importance, all other defined requirements are valid for both protocols. This leads to the conclusion that cross-fertilization between them is an appealing approach for future RANET research. To support such developments, this paper concludes with the definition of an appropriate working plan