IoT Explained
25 September 2025
Reading Time: 7 mins
Eseye
IoT Hardware and Connectivity Specialists
LinkedInAerial IoT, a category which includes drones, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and aerial compute and access networks, is one of the more nascent but fastest growing technology segments.
Evolved largely out of military technology, drones are now commonplace in many vertical sectors including agriculture, construction, and logistics. Meanwhile, aerial compute and aerial access networks are emerging as a way to bring IoT connectivity and performance computing to more remote regions and hostile environments where the IoT ecosystem currently struggles to deploy infrastructure.
What are drones and UAVs in Aerial IoT?
In most contexts, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and drones are used interchangeably, though UAV is the more formal aviation term. Most commercial drones also feature some level of autonomy enabling them to perform preprogrammed ‘missions’ or functions or respond to environmental events without operator input.
For wireless connectivity, most commercial drones rely on RF communications in the 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz bands for both flight control and data transmission, but it is common for commercial drones to include cellular and/or satellite connectivity.
Recently, battlefield drones have begun to deploy fiber optic cables for more secure control operation and enhanced functionality. This fiber optic ‘tether’ spools out to lengths of up to 300m and delivers high-definition video as well as being resistant to wireless signal jamming techniques. Yet while there is some potential to use fiber optic drones outside of the battlefield, so far, the additional challenges, such as kilometers of unspooled cable to deal with, outweigh the potential benefits.
Drones were first created for the military and defense market, now with some 20 years of development behind them, these technological advancements have more recently made their way to consumer and commercial use cases. This means today’s commercial drones have high payload capacities, long flight times and robust navigation featuring advanced communication systems that enable them to be used effectively in several industries.
The original military and defense adoption includes tactical drones used for Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions.
While the most prominent sector for drone adoption remains defense, this article does not focus on military or consumer applications and instead looks at opportunities for commercial drones’ usage in verticals such as agriculture, construction, emergency services, and logistics.
Overview of IoT in aerial access networks
Aerial compute and access networks are another segment of aerial IoT and a potential enabler in future 6G wireless systems.
An aerial access network (AAN) uses flying platforms like drones and satellites to provide connectivity and communication services by deploying the infrastructure in the air. It is particularly useful for bringing IoT connectivity to remote regions or harsh territorial environments where permanent cell tower or base station deployment is challenging.
The networks can be built using either low-altitude or high-altitude platforms or a mixture of the two, including tethered and untethered drones or UAVs, airships, and satellites, typically connected to terrestrial infrastructure to ensure comprehensive connectivity.
Some drones or airships can even be big enough to support local compute, like fog or mobile edge computing capabilities potentially through a drone swarm, enabling low-latency compute intensive IoT applications or smart services in remote regions such as mines, areas lacking in infrastructure such as construction sites, or even in a temporary capacity at natural disaster or emergency sites.
State of adoption of UAV technology
Berg Insight estimates that the installed base of commercial IoT drones – including the agriculture, military and defense, public safety and first response, and surveying and inspection sectors – reached 2.8 million units worldwide in 2024. The installed base of commercial drones is forecasted to grow quickly in the next few years, reaching 4.5 million units by 2029.
IoT-enabled applications for drones are far reaching. In the Agritech sector, drones are used for aerial imagery and crop spraying operations. In public safety and first response, drone-in-a-box solutions are used for reconnaissance. The surveying and inspection application use case considers drones used within the construction, mining, and oil and gas industries.
Other application areas include drones for last mile delivery and logistics as well as environmental monitoring and media and entertainment, such as filming.
Use cases for IoT drones and UAVs by segment
Agritech and smart farming
IoT is driving the use of drones in agriculture and smart farming to collect aerial images which can be used for precision mapping of fields or for surveying crops to monitor crop health, disease, and nutrient management, as well as to help estimate yields and plan optimal harvesting.
Drones can also be used to monitor herds of livestock without the need to send a human out on site.
Public safety and first response
Reconnaissance is the primary use case for drones in the emergency services and first responder sectors.
Some drones or UAVs are equipped with heat, movement, light and temperature sensors, which can increase the chances of positive outcomes of rescue missions and are especially useful in large scale disasters.
Construction
In the construction sector, surveying and inspection are the main use cases for drones. High-definition cameras mounted on drones can be used to inspect work and give viewpoints that are not easily available to humans to monitor progress.
Mining
In the smart mining sector, drones are becoming invaluable for surveying and inspection of drill sites. IoT sensors on drones can collect geological data, including ore grade measurements, structural information, and resource estimates.
Drones can also be used to warn of potential ground instability or other geological hazards.
Energy, oil and gas
Surveying and inspection is also the main use case for drones and UAVs in the smart energy sector. Drones can be deployed to assess oil and gas drilling sites but can also be used to assess infrastructure in hard-to-reach places like offshore wind farms.
Media and entertainment
Advances in drone technology have made once challenging and expensive aerial footage available to everyone. Innovative drone shots are now common in both big budget and low budget entertainment and movies.
Drones have also revolutionized sports media, introducing a new perspective to many televised games.
Logistics
While there are many experiments taking place to assess the suitability of drones for last mile delivery of goods to consumers, aerial drones will not always be a feasible option due to regulatory hurdles (e.g., FAA and EASA restrictions on BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight operations), limited payload capacities, and safety concerns in dense urban environments.
But drones don’t always fly – the logistics and shipping sector is also pioneering the adoption of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) and small ground-based delivery bots. In warehouses and fulfilment centers, drones – both aerial and ground-based – fall into the automated warehousing robots category where they are used for inventory management. They are becoming more common and increasingly part of the automated inventory management and delivery pipeline.
Environmental monitoring
Connected IoT sensors can be deployed in remote or countryside environments as part of an environmental monitoring initiative to look at air and water quality, weather, noise, pollen, smoke, and even disaster forecasting using seismic and flood sensors.
Given that connectivity is the final part of the puzzle when getting the data from the IoT devices into the analytical application, drones or temporary aerial access networks introduce a more high-tech evolution of the traditional weather balloon.
The role of aerial access networks in IoT
Almost all of the sectors above can benefit from the deployment of aerial access networks (AANs) in some capacity. But the industries that are most obvious to benefit from flying network infrastructure are:
- Public safety and first response
- Mining
- Energy, oil and gas
- Environmental monitoring
In these sectors, the use of flying platforms like drones and satellites to provide connectivity and communication services deliver clear benefits when building out terrestrial infrastructure is too expensive or not even possible.
Initiatives in these sectors also tend to be in remote areas, typically outside of cellular coverage, or in the case of emergency services, perhaps even following a large-scale disaster that destroyed telecoms infrastructure.
Being able to deploy an aerial mesh network quickly and on a temporary basis opens new possibilities and can save lives. As technology advances and more high-performance local compute becomes available, potential applications expand significantly.
Cellular networks in Aerial IoT
All drones and UAVs feature RF communications as the default for both flight control and data transmission. But it is common for commercial drones to also feature cellular and/or satellite connectivity, especially for BVLOS operations, to ensure that the drone can always communicate with ground control stations even at long distances.
Cellular 4G and 5G provides reliable support for two-way high-data low-latency IoT connectivity and data transfer between the control station and drone. Combining cellular and satellite technologies ensures that drones can maintain real-time connectivity with their control stations over long distances and in challenging environments.
Drones, UAVs, and other Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), such as driverless cars, require low latency connectivity as the multitude of sensors on board rely on real-time communication for safety functions.
Overcoming the connectivity challenge for Aerial IoT
Traditionally, aerial IoT solutions have been hindered by connectivity limitations, but now there is a wide range of LPWA, satellite, and cellular technologies to supplement RF protocols, meaning near-continuous connectivity for aerial IoT devices including drones and UAVs.
Eseye’s AnyNet SMARTconnect gives aerial IoT devices the intelligence to swap to another network if connectivity drops, even if line-of-sight is lost, and future-proofs the device by allowing new networks and operators to be easily introduced. It also provides the building blocks to enable connectivity applets with access to multiple RATs – for example cellular, Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth, LoRaWAN and satellite.
Always-on connectivity with multi-network roaming
Not only do drones and UAVs move, sometimes across borders, but the same devices may be deployed in multiple geographies, especially in sectors like mining or energy. So, these IoT devices might need to maintain connectivity in multiple markets and overcome roaming limitations.
Eseye’s multi-IMSI AnyNet+ eSIMs provide a seamless IoT connectivity solution that meets the demanding requirements of aerial IoT initiatives.
Having signed agreements with major mobile network operators across the globe, Eseye delivers access to more than 800 networks in over 190 countries, resulting in near-continuous connectivity uptime and also avoids the risks associated with roaming – including your devices being disconnected with little or no notice.
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