Connectivity Technologies for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks formed by Heterogeneous Nodes

The overall objective of the proposed Phase II effort is the development and evaluation of the CONNECT PLUS suite of protocols. CONNECT PLUS includes schemes to enable MANET routing on heterogeneous environments and schemes for multi-ply routing, a novel technology that makes use of spare capacity of wireless nodes. These protocols are expected to find wide applicability in providing IP connectivity between disparate technologies in airborne networking applications. Node heterogeneity is addressed by using Entity Capability Profiles (ECPs) for nodes. These ECPs are distributed across the network and used for routing decisions. Multi-ply routing is used in two forms: multi-ply capacity, to support high bandwidth and bursty applications, and multi-ply diversity, which makes use of the spare bandwidth for robustness, by sending the same packet across multiple paths. Phase I has formulated the entire CONNECT PLUS protocol stack including routing and attending elements at the lower (MAC and PHY) and higher layers. Phase I has also successfully demonstrated that multi-ply results in substantial gains in network utilization with respect to single path routing in airborne network environments. Further development and evaluation of CONNECT PLUS in Phase II includes: (1) the development of modules for capacity estimation and reservation; (2) the development of schemes for packet reordering control; (3) implementation and demonstration of the concept in a network of COTS PDAs. BBN Technologies will provide unique expertise in MANET routing technology and support in the transition to the PDA environment. BBN will also provide commercialization support. Prof. Ravi Sundaram from Northeastern University will provide unique expertise in Graph Theory.