Characterizing Routing with Radio-to-Router Information in a Heterogeneous Airborne Network

Abstract

The current generation of long-range, high capacity, military radios are stove-piped systems that work well in a homogeneous environment, but lack interoperability with other radio systems. Each radio provides a subset of disparate link information in non-standard interfaces and has built-in home-grown routers running different routing protocols. In a heterogeneous radio system airborne environment, wireless link characteristics change rapidly, often requiring direct link feedback from the radio to make routing decisions. In recent years, much work has been done in developing a common radio-to-router interface (R2RI) that standardizes a subset of per-link information to pass to the network layer for use in dynamic MANET routing. While simulations and emulation tests can provide a baseline for how systems might perform, field-tests are crucial to demonstrate capabilities in real-world operating environments. In this paper, we present measurement results from a field test involving several air and ground assets with various radio systems that test an implementation of RFC4938, a radio-to-router interface protocol, and its interaction with a dynamic MANET routing protocol. The assets formed a high capacity, dynamically routed aerial IP backbone made of heterogeneous radio technologies over 250 nautical miles (Nm), allowing the passing of military traffic.Index Terms-Radio-to-router, heterogeneous airborne network.

A constructive airborne‐ground matrix algorithm for modern telecommunication systems

“…On-demand air resources are provided to reach back network connectivity to ground infrastructure systems while maintaining coverage [26]. To sustain communication between vehicles and control other unmanned aerial systems outside their communication range using the relay chain concept discussed in ref.…”

Minimum-Delay Routing for Integrated Aeronautical Ad Hoc Networks Relying on Real Flight Data in the North-Atlantic Region

“…More specially, in [24], a geographic load sharing based forwarding and handover strategy was proposed for airborne mesh networks relying on multi-server queueing models for striking a compelling balance between the capacity and the specific traffic load of each link. In [25], the characteristics of heterogeneous airborne networks relying on military radios were interpreted and their field tests complemented by a Request for Comment (RFC) 4938 (RFC4938) concerning their interaction with MANET protocols were reported on. Inspired by the accurate geographic information available for aircraft, a node trajectory density based routing algorithm was developed for maximizing the packet delivery probability in [26].…”

Twin-Component Near-Pareto Routing Optimization for AANETs in the North-Atlantic Region Relying on Real Flight Statistics

“…As a further development, a genetic algorithm based joint routing and scheduling technique was proposed for minimizing the weighted hop count. In [5], the characteristics of heterogeneous airborne networks relying on military radios were interpreted and their field tests concerning their interaction with mobile ad hoc network (MANET) protocols were reported on. Inspired by the accurate geographic information available for aircraft, a trajectory density based routing algorithm was developed for maximizing the successful packet delivery probability in [6].…”