Implementing Mobile Ad Hoc Networking (MANET) over Legacy Tactical Radio Links

Mobile Ad Hoc Networking (MANET) is a key technology enabler in the tactical communication domain for the Network Centric Warfare.[1] A self-forming, self-healing, infrastructure-less network consisting of mobile nodes is very attractive for beyond line of sight (BLOS) voice and data range extension as well as tactical networking applications in general. Current research and development mostly focus on implementing MANET over new wideband data waveforms. However, a large number of currently fielded tactical radios and the next generation software defined radios (SDR) support various legacy tactical radio waveforms. A mobile ad hoc network over such legacy tactical radio links not only provides war fighters mission critical networking applications such as Situational Awareness and short payload messaging, the MANET nodes can also support voice and legacy data interoperation with the existing fielded legacy radios. Furthermore, the small spectrum footprint of current narrowband tactical radio waveforms can be complementary to the new wideband data waveforms for providing networking access in a spectrum constrained environment. This paper first describes the networking usage requirements for MANET over legacy narrowband tactical waveforms. Next, the common characteristics of legacy tactical radio waveforms and the implications of such characteristics for the MANET implementation are discussed. Then an actual MANET implementation over a legacy tactical radio waveform on a SDR is presented with the results of actual field tests. Finally, several improvements to this implementation are proposed.