The ActComm project: mobile agents and ad hoc routing meeting military requirements for information superiority

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Trends in military operations indicate the need for information systems with greater mobility and processing capabilities to maintain information superiority on the battlefield. We present research in technology areas critical to achieving future visions of information superiority cited by the US military. The two technologies discussed are mobile agents and ad hoc wireless networking. A mobile agent is a form of mobile code, an executable program that can move at will from one machine to another. Mobile agents are used to move computation to more suitable network locations, often to avoid the use of unreliable or low-bandwidth network links. Mobile agents are also used to autonomously filter and transport data from remote locations to save bandwidth and increase the timeliness of the data being delivered. In a mobile environment, a wireless communication network provides an efficient means of communication among soldiers. Constant movement of individual and groups of soldiers in the field means the wireless network must maintain a dynamically updated routing system for transmitting messages. This can be achieved using ad hoc wireless routing protocols. We discuss a 21/sup st/ century military scenario developed to demonstrate how mobile code and ad hoc wireless networking technologies can help overcome current military infrastructure limitations. The scenario involves an urban peacekeeping mission in which soldiers identify and apprehend terrorists within a building. The D'Agents mobile agent system is used as the core infrastructure to provide fault tolerant, intelligent information processing and communication among soldiers. The Any Path Routing without Loops (APRL) algorithm allows soldiers to maintain connectivity in spite of physical movement in the urban setting. Experimentation included execution of the scenario in multiple outdoor trials. Results indicate that mobile agents and ad hoc routing protocols can overcome many current limitations of mobile information processing systems.