Optimizing tactical military MANETs with a specialized PSO

An agent location optimization model for military mobile ad-hoc networks is described. A mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a self-configuring network of autonomous agents designed to continuously support users who change the topology of the network dynamically and independently. The autonomous agents are controlled to maximize the connectivity of user nodes that move within the target region considering tactical military aspects. The primary objective of the agent location model is to maximize the connectivity and quality of communication between user nodes and a control node. To support military applications, a new approach, the Pre-deployed Agent Level (PAL) is introduced and a particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based heuristic with PAL is developed to solve the problem under three user mobility models. The focus of the paper is to determine the effect of PAL on the communication quality in the network.