Simulation and Evaluation of Computation Offloading Algorithms in Battlefield Scenarios

Abstract

Due to their small size and ever-increasing computing capability, mobile devices, such as smart phones, are ideal tools for computation in the battlefield. However, there are some mission-critical applications that cannot be completed in real-time on these devices. Some of these applications can meet their deadlines through computation offloading: sending computationally expensive operations to high-performance computers (HPCs). However, in battlefields it may not be possible to access traditional offloading targets, such as cloud computing services. In this project we examine computation offloading on mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) using vehicle-mounted HPCs as offload targets. We use the network simulator ns-3 to model computation offloading in the battlefield. We implemented a suite of extensible ns-3 models, which allow for a wide variety of experiments with MANETs. Using these models, we study a number of aspects of computation offloading including: HPC placement, client offloading strategies, effects of HPC mobility, and variations in network topology. In this report, we describe the overall architecture of the models and provide experimental results on the performance gained by computation offloading when a number of parameters are varied. Our initial results indicate that offloading to mobile HPCs increases the utility of mobile devices as computation platforms in the battlefield.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2014
Accession Number
ADA598938

Entities

People

  • Brian Swenson
  • David Doria
  • Tamim Sookoor

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ad Hoc Networks
  • Cloud Computing
  • Computer Networks
  • Computers
  • Mesh Networks
  • Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
  • Mobile Devices
  • Mobile Phones
  • Multiple Access
  • Network Architecture
  • Network Protocols
  • Network Topology
  • Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
  • Routing Protocols
  • Smartphones
  • Transport Protocols
  • Wireless Networks

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computer Networking
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.