6LoWpan-based tactical wireless sensor network architecture for remote large-scale random deployment scenarios

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for tactical environments have been considered as the fundamentals for realizing the future combat system (FCS) supporting network-centric warfare (NCW). Much research related to tactical WSN architecture has been conducted. However, a research about randomly distributed WSNs for military tactical scenarios considering functionalities from bootstrap to data transmission has not been considered yet. In this paper, we describe a 6LoWPAN (IPv6 over low-power wireless personal area networks)-based military WSN architecture for remote wide areas of specific tactical interests in which sensor nodes are randomly distributed. The network architecture is designed based on tactical WSN requirements for the target application scenario and key functionalities for satisfying these requirements, such as self-organization, address auto-configuration, hierarchical multi-hop routing protocol, and header compression.