Advanced Topology Control Technologies for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

The topology of a network is the set of links between nodes. Topology control is the selection and adjustment of controllable parameters in response to uncontrollable factors such as noise and interference to create and maintain a topology with user-desired characteristics. For a typical Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET), the set of parameters that are candidates for control include the transmit power, antenna direction and the use of multiple transceivers. Desired characteristics include covertness (minimal power signature) and connectivity/bi-connectivity. These characteristics are generally in conflict with each other, motivating (adaptive) topology control (TC). This Phase II effort will leverage SSCI's Phase I work on power-based topology control for mobile networks to design and evaluate topology control technologies (TCTs) for general MANETs over acoustic channels. Besides improving stealthiness, TC also improves overall network throughput, due to the reduction of channel contention. The following topics will be covered: (1) investigating appropriate metrics for stealthiness; (2) developing TC schemes based on power control, directional antennas and multiple transceivers per node; (3) integrating TC with MANET routing; (4) minimizing power for topology discovery; (5) examining stability issues related to the rates of neighbor discovery update and power control update; (6) designing hybrid schemes combining local and global topology control; (7) implementing and testing of the TCT suite on a high-fidelity acoustic communication environment of interest to DARPA. BBN Technologies will be a part of the team, providing support in MANET technologies and Phase III commercialization.