Aerial networks, composed of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) acting as Wi-Fi access points or cellular base stations, are emerging as an interesting solution to provide on-demand wireless connectivity to users, when there is no network infrastructure available, or to enhance the network capacity. This article proposes a traffic-aware topology control solution for aerial networks that holistically combines the placement of UAVs with a predictive and centralized routing protocol. The synergy created by the combination of the UAV placement and routing solutions allows the aerial network to seamlessly update its topology according to the users’ traffic demand, whilst minimizing the disruption caused by the movement of the UAVs. As a result, the Quality of Service (QoS) provided to the users is improved. The components of the proposed solution are described and evaluated in this article by means of simulation and an experimental testbed. The results show that the QoS provided to the users is significantly improved when compared to the corresponding baseline solutions.

由无人驾驶飞机（UAV）充当Wi-Fi接入点或蜂窝基站组成的空中网络正在成为一种有趣的解决方案，可以在没有可用的网络基础结构时为用户提供按需无线连接，或者增强网络容量。本文提出了一种用于空中网络的流量感知拓扑控制解决方案，该解决方案将UAV的位置与预测性和集中式路由协议全面地结合在一起。无人机放置和路由解决方案的组合所产生的协同作用使空中网络可以根据用户的流量需求无缝更新其拓扑，同时将无人机移动所造成的干扰降到最低。结果，改善了提供给用户的服务质量（QoS）。本文通过仿真和实验性测试平台对提出的解决方案的组件进行了描述和评估。结果表明，与相应的基准解决方案相比，提供给用户的QoS得到了显着改善。