The availability of low-cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), such as unmanned quadrocopters and blimps, opens up the prospects of an entirely new class of Low Altitude Wireless Network Platforms, which are hosted at altitudes of up to a few hundred meters. These aerial networks allow on one hand new sensor applications like 3D-air-quality-measurements and on the other new navigational strategies that are based on inter robot communication like swarming. The wireless network needs to provide highly reliable and low delay control links and data links for administering and managing UAVs and user/sensor/mission data respectively. At the same time, UAVs offer the capability to provide ad-hoc wireless networks, for example to facilitate temporary hot spots in case of public events and emergencies. At the same time, UAV-based networks may be flexibly deployed to compensate network outages. The workshop aims to share and discuss most recent results of various international research initiatives in the area of communication systems for aerial wireless networks. The focus of the workshop will be solely based on projects and research aiming at civilian applications.



Technical Topics

* Communication technologies and protocols for UAV communication: air-to-ground, air-to-air, air-to-user Network architectures, in particular mesh networking
* Interworking with satellites and terrestrial networks
* Routing and handover
* communication techniques for navigation, control and guidance
* Remote and autonomous control of UAVs: GPS and vision based sense-and-avoid guidance
* Communication and system design of mission control centers (MCC)
* New low-cost UAV platforms and enhanced Health management
* QoS mechanisms and performance evaluation
* Advances in remote sensing: miniaturization, low-weight
* Energy efficient communication and antenna design
* New applications and services
* Agent based mobility, multi-platform control, cognitive capabilities and swarming
* Results from prototypes, test-beds and demonstrations (incl. live demos during workshop )
* Related areas, such as Marine communication

Proposals for papers related to the topics listed above are solicited. Other related topics in the UAV or wireless communication field are welcome as well. Maximum paper length is five pages. IEEE paper template is to be used..



During the workshop participants are welcome to show current prototypes and demonstrators to underline research progress.

The workshop will only accept original, previously unpublished papers. Prospective authors are encouraged to submit an IEEE conference style paper up to 5 pages (including all text, figures, and references) through EDAS submission system (http://www.edas.info), but one additional page will be allowed with additional publication fee. Only PDF files are accepted for paper review. The standard IEEE Transactions templates for Microsoft Word or LaTeX formats can be found at

http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/pubs/transactions/stylesheets.html.

Alternatively one can follow the sample instructions at

http://www.comsoc.org/confs/globecom/2008/template.pdf.

An accepted paper must be registered before the registration deadline and must be presented at the workshop. Failure to register before the deadline will result in automatic withdrawal of the paper from the workshop proceedings and the program. All accepted and presented papers will be included in the IEEE GLOBECOM proceedings and IEEE digital library. GLOBECOM has the right to remove an accepted and registered but not presented paper from the IEEE digital library.