An Integrated Robust and Auto-Configurable Network Service Protocol Suite for Wireless Airborne Networks

The envisioned Airbone Network (AN) is expected to provide seamless connectivity for operators and a large number of applications. All these applications require proper network service support, including auto-configurable addressing, human usable naming, and support for service discovery. In this proposal, Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI), in collaboration with Prof. Dharma P. Agrawal at the University of Cincinnati and Dr. T. McAuley at the Telcordia Technologies Inc., proposes an Integrated Robust and Auto-Configurable Network Service Protocol Suite (IRAC_NSPS) to enable a variety of network services in ANs. The proposed IRAC_NSPS exploits existing technologies and makes them more applicable to the dynamic ANs. First, the network service functionalities are formulated in a distributed hierarchical manner, which improves the protocol scalability, reliability and robustness. Second, an auto-configurable address assignment approach is proposed to provide bandwidth-efficiency and robustness. We also adapt terrestrial domain name service to dynamic AN environments by adding dynamic configurations. The Logical Name System is also proposed to further enhance the robustness and efficiency of the name service. Finally, the service architecture generation and maintenance mechanisms as well as the service discovery protocol are integrated to mitigate the overhead due to the constrained-bandwidth nature in ANs.