An implementation of a flexible topology management system for aerial high capacity directional networks

In recent years, there has been a large push in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to augment ground networks with a high capacity airborne backbone network that uses directional communications technologies. Such a network could supplement the traditional SATCOM infrastructure which can become easily oversubscribed, may be degraded, or may even be unavailable. Although there are several advantages to these high capacity aerial backbone networks, one key challenge is topology formation and maintenance with highly directional links. In this paper, we present an architectural concept and implementation of a flexible topology management (TM) system for topology formation and coordination of aerial high capacity backbone networks. The TM framework is modular and extensible to allow for different algorithms and radio systems to be employed. A simple baseline algorithm is presented that maximizes network connectivity. Performance results from an EMANE/CORE emulation of a simple but representative aerial range extension network show that high link and network availability can potentially be attained by an automated TM architecture in this type of scenario.