Autonomous Cognitive Topology Management for highly Mobile Airborne Networks (ACTMAN)

ABSTRACT: Mayflower proposes autonomous cognitive technology for next generation MANET for aircraft, namely the Autonomous Cognitive Topology Management for highly mobile Airborne Networks (ACTMAN) to meet the objectives stated in the solicitation. ACTMAN represents a comprehensive technology that provides automatic topology discovery and topology optimization, provides sufficient level of security through rapid peer authentication, and provides effective measures to avoid jamming signals and RF interference through Cognitive MAC with MIMO. In addition, the proposed approach can cope with high speed mobility, persistent topology changes, and frequent membership changes. These technology components will be implemented with low overhead and will be interoperable with legacy airborne network systems. The ability to auto-configure the network topology, rapidly authenticate valid users, and improve RF communication quality against jamming and interference represents a key enabler in Network-Centric Warfare. BENEFIT: The autonomous networking technology, ACTMAN, can enable rapid deployment of the airborne networks without the lengthy mission planning. The ability to auto-configure the airborne networking assets without manual intervention can significantly shorten the network deployment time. This ability also allows the airborne network to merge and disconnect during these operations without any complex reconfiguration requirements. Also, ACTMAN can protect and enhance the mission-critical data against network dynamics. The ability to securely authenticate users can effectively fend off adversaries from cyber intrusion. In addition, the ability to avoid jamming signals from adversaries and mitigate interference can significantly improve the RF communication quality. There is significant interest in autonomous networking capability that can be readily deployed in the realm of disaster relief network where multiple parties may operate jointly with network merge and disconnect during the relief effort, requiring autonomous topology management, rapid authentication, and interference mitigation. The proposed ACTMAN system can provide a plug-n-play networking capability for these networks.