A Stochastic Distribution Based Methodology to Estimate Control Phase Time for Software-Defined Radios in Tactical MANETs

Abstract

Unlike commercial networks, the tactical networks drive in a critical environment and without a backbone infrastructure. These networks involve mission-critical operations that are dependent on the rapid and reliable transfer of delay-sensitive data to conduct command and control (C2). Owing to the decentralized and dynamic nature, tactical networks need to survive by maintaining seamless and simultaneous time-sensitive communication among software-defined radios (SDRs). Under mobility and dynamic network topology, link status continuously changes that cause substantial packet loss, and degrade network performance. It is challenging to maintain the connectivity between communicating nodes and find a suitable time for sending control messages (e.g., packet forwarding and route discovery), known as control phase time (CPT). Given a maximum transmission range for narrowband (NB) and wideband (WB) communication, the knowledge of link duration between communicating radios are of major concern, particularly for low latency and reliable communication requirements. Many existing techniques focus on topology control by exchanging mobility parameters in control transmissions, increasing the delay in data transmission. Therefore, it is a non-trivial task to calculate the expected time for the control transmissions due to the confrontation of speed and random movement of nodes. This paper presents a novel methodology to estimate a suitable time to execute the control phase based on the lifetime of communication links between SDRs in tactical MANETs. It uses stochastic distribution to make a network capable of effectively figuring out operative connectivity. The proposed methodology evaluates the maximum network connectivity based on the distances between communicating radios and radio transmission ranges for different quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. The simulation results validate that the proposed methodology’s CPT estimations are more appropriate for the timely link-formations in tactical radio MANETs. The proposed technique is generic and can be applied to any MANET environment using different mobility models.