Hierarchical Organization for Large, Dynamic Radio Networks

摘要

As new technology is incorporated into weapons and command and control systems, the need for data communications and data processing at the tactical level will increase dramatically. Tactical ground forces are mobile and they operate in a highly stressed environment complete with noise, false messages and attrition of communication resources. Packet radio network (PRNET) is a promising technology that can serve tactical data communication applications if its architecture and the functionality of its protocols is enhanced to allow it to adapt to frequently changing environment and incorporation of a large number of users. Developing such architectures and protocols for large, survivable PRNETs and evaluating their performance were the principal thrusts of this research project. The main advances made in this effort include development of architectures and algorithms that fall in the following categories: (1) Hierarchical architectures and routing for dynamic networks; (2) Multichannel networks--architectures and protocols; (3) Dynamic selection of radio FEC code rate to adapt to channel variations; (4) Broadcast algorithms that provide for transport of messages to multiple destinations amidst topological changes; (5) Self-organizing networks in which the nodes control their local connectivity. The correctness of some algorithms was validated analytically; others were tested by simulations.