Minuteman: Forward Projection of Unmanned Agents Using the Airborne Internet

Abstract

The goal of the Minuteman project is to develop the concept and initial prototype of an agile, dynamic, multi-layer 'Internet in the Sky' architecture that can deliver the 'forward power' of unmanned missions. The architecture consists of a high speed, wireless Mobile Backbone Network (MBN) - with point-to-point wireless links, and local access networks feeding to backbone nodes. The design is extremely challenging because of he hostile environment, the need for QoS support and the unpredictable nature of the requirements. The focus of this paper is on scalable addressing and routing in such a multiplayer, mobile environment where UAVs can fly at speeds exceeding several hundred miles per hour. We exploit the fact that agents typically move in groups, and achieve scalability by keeping track of a 'landmark' for each group. This is done using LANMAR, a Land-Mark Ad hoc Routing scheme. The LANMAR scheme originally developed for 'flat' ad hoc networks extends naturally to a network with a physical backbone. Via simulation we show that LANMAR maintains robust, resilient, rapidly restored connectivity in the face of agent mobility.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA513305

Entities

People

  • Allen Moshfegh
  • Kaixin Xu
  • Mario Gerla

Organizations

  • University of California, Los Angeles

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ad Hoc Networks
  • Computer Networks
  • Databases
  • Detectors
  • Mesh Networks
  • Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
  • Network Architecture
  • Network Protocols
  • Networks
  • Reconnaissance
  • Routing Protocols
  • Surveillance
  • Target Recognition
  • Unmanned Ground Vehicles
  • Unmanned Vehicles
  • Wireless Communications
  • Wireless Networks

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computer Networking

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Autonomous System Control
  • Autonomy - UAVs