Title
Group-centric networking: addressing information sharing requirements at the tactical edge.
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a large push in the U.S. Department of Defense to move to an all-IP infrastructure, particularly on the tactical edge. IP and associated protocols were designed primarily for wired networks tied to fixed infrastructure. Although extensions to support MANET have received decades of research, in practice, there are few successful implementations. Challenges include handling mobility, managing lossy links, and scaling to large numbers of users. Unfortunately, these are the exact conditions military tactical edge networks must operate within: high mobility, high loss, and large numbers of users. To address the needs and particular challenges of military tactical edge information sharing requirements, we consider a new class of networking approaches called group-centric networks that focuses on dynamic and resilient formation of interest groups. The structure of tactical networks limits the majority of collaboration and network traffic to within a group of users that share a set of common interests (i.e., platoons, 4-ships, etc.). These groups are formed either prior to the mission or on the fly with only a minor amount of traffic flowing outside of these groups. Group-centric networking approaches can help connect users in military tactical edge networks. In addition, we also discuss an instantiation of a group-centric network protocol called Group Centric Networking (GCN), compare GCN against a traditional MANET routing approach on a 90-node Android mobile phone testbed, and discuss implications for tactical edge users.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1109/MCOM.2016.7588284
IEEE Communications Magazine
Keywords
Field
DocType
Military communication,Mobile ad hoc networks,IP networks,Unicast,Routing protocols,Information management
Computer science,Computer security,Information exchange,Computer network,Optimized Link State Routing Protocol,Unicast,Mobile phone,Tactical communications system,Information sharing,Communications protocol,Distributed computing,Routing protocol
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
54
10
0163-6804
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.36
5
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Bow-Nan Cheng114227.22
gregory kuperman2163.07
Patricia Deutsch311.37
Logan Mercer410.69
Aradhana Narula-Tam59611.99