A Cross-Layer Design for a Multihop, Self-Healing, and Self-Forming Tactical Network

Abstract

In mission and time critical applications, bandwidth and delay optimizations are the key goals of communication systems. This paper presents a cross-layer framework design that reduces the call setup time, provides collision-free communication, and reuses the empty slots of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocol which otherwise causes low throughput and large delay. As number of communicating nodes in tactical networks is small as compared to commercial mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), classical TDMA will yield huge number of empty slots and any Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) technique may cause more delay in some critical scenarios. Proposed methodology gives a Cross-Layer Architecture for Network (NET) Layer and Medium Access Control (MAC) Layer. Our design provides bandwidth efficient, collision-free communication to Software-Defined Radios (SDRs) in self-forming and self-healing tactical networks with low call setup time and multihop routing. For this purpose TDMA as MAC layer protocol and Ad Hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) as Network Layer Routing Protocol are used. Our slot allocation (SA) algorithm, Cross-Layer TDMA (CL-TDMA), consists of control phase where AODV control packets are exchanged and data transfer phase where transmission of data and voice occurs. All active radios in vicinity gather information about communicating nodes based on the exchange of control packets by SDRs. Our algorithm then uses this information to help all active SDRs find slot(s) that will be used for collision-free transmission. A number of experiments are performed to establish improved performance of the proposed technique compared to other established techniques and protocols.

Conceptual Framework for Future WSN-MAC Protocol to Achieve Energy Consumption Enhancement

“…Nosheen et al [ 59 ] proposed a cross-layer design for a multi-hop, self-healing, and self-forming tactical network that minimizes the time of call setup, delivering collision-free communication and reusing the Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocol empty slots. However, this can result in high delay and low throughput.…”

A Novel Self-Forming Virtual Sub-Nets Based Cross-Layer MAC Protocol for Multihop Tactical Network

“…Few research studies based on cross-layer schemes have been carried out to support distributed communication in multihop ad hoc and tactical networks. A cross-layer framework CL-TDMA for tactical SDRs that provides self-forming and self-healing features was proposed in [13]. The design uses TDMA as the MAC layer and ad-hoc on-demand distance vector(AODV) on network layer.…”

“…A cross-layer framework for SDR based multihop tactical network CL-TDMA [13] A TDMA-based cross-layer MAC for multihop tactical networks exploits empty slots and provides route calculation using AODV control messages, whereas our proposed VSCL-MAC eliminates the use of control packets to perform route discovery and uses the same NBR_table. All the requests for intended transmissions are forwarded directly to the selected next-hop neighbor instead of sending the broadcast message to all neighbors.…”

Adaptive Multi-Input Medium Access Control (AMI-MAC) Design Using Physical Layer Cognition for Tactical SDR Networks

“…A cross-layer framework to provide collision-free communication, reduce delays, and reuse empty time slots in SDR tactical networks is proposed in [23]. The authors have proposed a cross-layer mechanism to support routing and MAC.…”