Resources Management in Peer-to-Peer Mobile Ad Hoc Network Communications Environments

Despite the concerted efforts to create advanced network management tools and systems, and the existence of a large library of commercial-off-the-shelf COTS tools designed to manage IP-based networks, outstanding issues remain. The underlying management protocols that allow these tools to operate across a networked environment such as SNMP have not been updated to meet the challenges of peer-to-peer MANETs, such as limited power, variable link quality, limited storage capacity, and especially dynamic topology changes. Efforts to replace or update SNMP for ad-hoc networks have not yet been standardized or tested in realistic environments. DataSoft therefore proposes to develop and demonstrate a new approach for a MANET Management Protocol (MMP). This new protocol specification will be compatible with existing tools and systems designed for SNMP, while incorporating innovative approaches to resource management in dynamic mobile networks. Phase I focuses on integration of several new approaches into MMP: hierarchical management via secure clustering; adaptive, disruption-tolerant forwarding; topology management MIBs; and secure multicast. These concepts are tested in a simulation studies and demonstrated with a realistic MANET environment.