Decentralized and Network-Aware UAV Service Deployment for Dependency-Driven Applications

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) swarms enable the rapid deployment of IoT services in dynamic and challenging environments. While these swarms offer flexibility and close proximity to sensing and actuation points, efficiently deploying interdependent services at scale remains a core challenge. Traditional centralized methods struggle to handle the complexity of large UAV networks, leading to increased latency and limited reliability. In this paper, we propose a decentralized approach to service deployment in UAV swarms. Our method relies on local information at each node, allowing UAVs to make their own assignment decisions. Over time, these decisions are iteratively refined as nodes exchange status updates and adapt to network changes. This process avoids the bottlenecks of centralized coordination and enables more responsive resource allocation. Simulation results show that our approach supports the successful deployment of a high number of tasks while maintaining low latency. These findings indicate that decentralized methods with local resource knowledge, improves both scalability and responsiveness in UAV-based IoT systems.