A comprehensive survey on data aggregation techniques in UAV-enabled Internet of things

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used to extend the Internet of things (IoT) framework owing to their vast applications, monitoring and surveillance capability, ubiquity, and mobility. To support IoT requirements, UAVs must be capable of aggregating, processing, and transmitting data in real-time basis. As not only the number of IoT devices but also the amount of data to be collected is increased, data aggregation is of great importance. Recently, the UAV can also function as a mobile edge computing server in association with aerial data aggregation. This paper is the first to survey the various aspects and techniques of UAV-based aerial data aggregation for IoT networks. After addressing key design issues, we review the existing data aggregation techniques along with possible future direction. They are then compared with each other in terms of major operational features, performance characteristics, advantages, and limitations. Open issues and research challenges are also discussed with possible solution approaches.