Topology Aggregation for Hierarchical Wireless Tactical Networks

Wireless tactical network (WTN) is the most important present-day technology enabling modern network centric warfare. It inherits many features from WMNs, since the WTN is based on existing wireless mesh networks (WMNs). However, it also has distinctive characteristics, such as hierarchical structures and tight QoS (Quality-of-Service) requirements. Little research has been conducted on hierarchical protocols to support various QoS in WMN. We require new protocols specifically optimized for WTNs. Control packets are generally required to find paths and reserve resources for QoS requirements, so data throughput is not degraded due to overhead. The fundamental solution is to adopt topology aggregation, in which a low tier node aggregates and simplifies the topology information and delivers it to a high tier node. The overhead from control packet exchange can be reduced greatly due to decreased information size. Although topology aggregation is effective for low overhead, it also causes the inaccuracy of topology information; thus, incurring low QoS support capability. Therefore, we need a new topology aggregation algorithm to achieve high accuracy. In this paper, we propose a new aggregation algorithm based on star topology. Noting the hierarchical characteristics in military and hierarchical networks, star topology aggregation can be used effectively. Our algorithm uses a limited number of bypasses to increase the exactness of the star topology aggregation. It adjusts topology parameters whenever it adds a bypass. Consequently, the result is highly accurate and has low computational complexity.