Optimal UAV Speed for Data Harvesting in Wireless Sensor Networks with Limited Queue

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are widely used as platforms for real-time data collection and mission-oriented services in various fields, including wireless sensor networks (WSNs), due to their high mobility and ability to access different environments without geographical limitations. This paper evaluates the effect of UAV's speed on the data transfer performance in WSNs with limited memory size in the UAV. In the proposed approach, instead of assuming that the UAV has unlimited queues as in previous studies, we consider a more realistic scenario where the UAV has a limited queue size. The UAV moves quickly while collecting data from sensor nodes and reduces its speed near the access point (AP) to perform data transmission. Through the intensive simulation study, we show that the queue length limitation impacts on the optimal speed of the UAV for data collection and forward efficiency, which gives a practical intuition for UAV operation policy in WSNs.