In this letter, we address the problem of minimizing the energy consumption of disseminating a library of files to a set of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A framework is provided, in which a subset of devices are selected to receive data from a UAV and then forward the required data to other devices. Furthermore, optimal energy-efficient path selection is considered in order to realize efficient data dissemination. Specifically, an optimization problem is formulated to minimize the energy expenditure of the IoT devices and UAV while the latter tours to disseminate the required files to the former. An ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is developed to solve the optimization problem. Simulation results show that the proposed framework is more energy-efficient compared to a baseline approach, where the UAV hovers above each device to deliver the data. Results also illustrate that the proposed ACO algorithm provides performance close to the optimal solution, which is obtained through exhaustive search.

中文翻译：

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使用无人机的节能数据传播：蚁群方法

在这封信中，我们解决了使用无人机 (UAV) 将文件库传播到一组物联网 (IoT) 设备的能耗最小化的问题。提供了一种框架，其中选择设备子集来接收来自无人机的数据，然后将所需数据转发到其他设备。此外，为了实现高效的数据传播，考虑了最优的节能路径选择。具体来说，制定了一个优化问题，以最大限度地减少 IoT 设备和无人机的能量消耗，而后者则将所需的文件传播给前者。开发了蚁群优化（ACO）算法来解决优化问题。仿真结果表明，与基线方法相比，所提出的框架更节能，无人机悬停在每个设备上方以传递数据。结果还表明，所提出的 ACO 算法的性能接近通过穷举搜索获得的最优解。