Seamless Soft Handoff in Wireless Battlefield Networks using Local and Remote LFAPs

We propose an innovative distributed agent-based architecture for a seamless multi-layer soft handoff protocol in wireless battlefield networks. Our architecture utilizes a proactive "make before break" approach by introducing the concept of pre-computed remote Loop-Free Alternate Paths (rLFAPs) on top of local LFAPs proposed by the IETF IP Fast-Reroute (IPFRR) framework. Each router pre-computes a set of local and remote LFAPs which are maintained for protecting against adjacent and remote failures within multi-hop neighborhoods, respectively. Local LFAPs provide fast handoff while rLFAPs provide redundancy in case local LFAPs for a particular failure are not available. In the worst case, where IPFRR results in forming micro-loops due to inconsistent topology views of different routers, our solution completely prevents micro-loops for single failures and quickly converges to a loop-free path in case of multiple failures.