Automated topology control for wideband directional links in airborne military networks

Future airborne military operations will rely on emerging wideband directional RF and optical links for machine to machine networking. Management and control for such directional wireless links on mobile platforms is a significant challenge that does not arise in fixed terrestrial networks. As a consequence, new protocols and approaches are needed. This paper presents an architectural framework for control of wideband directional links in airborne military networks. Several distributed algorithms for automated topology management that we have devised and prototyped are described and compared. Results and experience from simulations and emulations are presented.