Mission-Based Agile Network Traffic Reprioritization (MANTRA) System for Crypto-Partitioned Tactical Environments

ABSTRACT: IP-based tactical networks which are being deployed increasingly must possess the capability to gracefully shed mission functions in accordance with the intent of the commander when network congestion occurs. Such congestion events are expected to be prevalent in tactical wireless networks because of two major factors: (1) the increasing use of bandwidth-hungry applications, such as full-motion video (FMV); and (2) dynamic changes in the capacity of wireless links, caused by node movement and environmental factors, which could dramatically shrink the available capacity of a link to a small fraction of its advertised maximum. Prioritization of IP packet flows associated with mission applications (e.g., VoIP, FMV, fire control, chat, web), in accordance with the commander"s current mission priorities, will enable the network to preempt or discard packet flows with lower priorities to preserve unimpeded operation of high-priority mission-critical applications under network congestion events. Since mission priorities may change over time, dynamic or on-the-fly reprioritization of IP packet flows is imperative for tactical IP networks. To address this technical challenge and to meet the need identified by the Air Force, Architecture Technology Corporation (ATCorp) proposes an innovative software-based network management solution called the Mission-Based Agile Network Traffic Reprioritization (MANTRA) system. BENEFIT: The results of this SBIR effort will produce a MANTRA software product that can be integrated within tactical IP networks to enable mission-oriented network command and control. DoD programs and initiatives that will benefit from the dynamic network traffic prioritization capability provided by MANTRA include the Joint Aerial Layer Network (JALN), Tactical Edge Networking C2, Joint Tactical Edge Networking (JTEN), WIN-T, and ADNS.