Cross-layer design for reliable communication in Airborne Networks

The future airborne network (AN) has to operate with lossy and intermittent data links, and other harsh technical challenges. However, current network protocols cannot perform well in AN, because they were originally developed for terrestrial-based Internet. Although some protocols were modified to adapt to space links, there is little research so far on reliable transmission mechanisms in AN environment. In this paper, we propose a cross-layer approach to achieve the goal of reliable data transmission in AN. The key components of the approach include a cross-layer framework to improve information sharing between different protocol layers, and adaptation/optimization function at link and transport layers. Preliminary simulation results on lossy and intermittent wireless links show that our approach is more superior to traditional terrestrial-based protocols.