Resilient internetwork routing over heterogeneous mobile military networks

Abstract

Mobile networks in the military tactical domain, include a range of radio networks with very diverse characteristics and which may be employed differently from operation to operation. When interconnecting networks with dissimilar characteristics (e.g. capacity, range, mobility) a difficult trade-off is to fully utilize the diverse network characteristics while minimizing the cost. To support the ever increasing requirements for future operations it is necessary to provide tools to quickly alter the rule-set during an ongoing operation, due to a change in operation and/or to support different needs. Our contribution is a routing protocol which targets these challenges. We propose an architecture to connect networks with different characteristics. One key point is that low capacity links/networks segments can be included in the heterogeneous network, these segments are protected from overload by controlling where and when signaling/data traffic is sent. The protocol supports traffic policing, including resource reservation. The other key point is the ability to quickly alter the network policy (rules-set) including QoS support during an operation or from operation to operation.