A unified link layer architecture for integrating heterogeneous media in survivable multimedia communication networks

Media characteristics important to digital communication systems are discussed, including: quantity (throughput, delay), quality (BER), and stability (variability and vulnerability to countermeasures); and the selective application of transmission equipment (receivers/transmitters, modems, coders, interleavers) as a function of media, to provide usable digital connectivity. An OSI and TCP/IP protocol compatible link layer architecture to effectively and efficiently utilize multimedia connectivity between nodes with absolute minimum overhead impact is presented. An approach to the use of data links (based in multiple heterogeneous media) is presented, and a heuristic is implemented which states that user-to-user connectivity can be established via multiple hop paths, with different hops utilizing different media; that most individual data links are candidates for use on the next hop; and that all media should be used continuously by the network