Software-Defined Networking for Flying Ad-hoc Network Security: A Survey

Despite the immense use of single Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems in various applications, it is not yet able to cover large areas with optimized energy consumption. Accordingly, Flying Ad-hoc Network (FANET), as a collaborative groups of UAVs, is tremendously employed in recent research works allowing larger coverage and efficient monitoring. To ensure a secure FANET control, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) based solutions are frequently considered. This work presents and compares the recent SDN-based solutions proposed to reinforce FANET security and reduce its attacks. In addition, open research issues are highlighted with respect to SDN-FANET challenges.