Drones in the Smart City and IoT: Protocols, Resilience, Benefits, and Risks

Drones have quickly become ubiquitous for both recreational and serious use. As is frequently the case with new technology in general, their rapid adoption already far exceeds our legal, policy, and social ability to cope with such issues as privacy and interference with well-established commercial and military air space. While the FAA has issued rulings, they will almost certainly be challenged in court as disputes arise, for example, when property owners shoot drones down. It is clear that drones will provide a critical role in smart cities and be connected to, if not directly a part of the IoT (Internet of Things). Drones will provide an essential role in providing network relay connectivity and situational awareness, particularly in disaster assessment and recovery scenarios. As is typical for new network technologies, the deployment of the drone hardware far exceeds our research in protocols - extending our previous understanding of MANETs (mobile ad hoc networks) and DTNs (disruption tolerant networks) - and more importantly, management, control, resilience, security, and privacy concerns. This keynote address will discuss these challenges and consider future research directions.