Multidestination Protocols for Tactical Radio Networks

Multidestination protocol concepts suitable for survivable tactical command and control systems are presented. Specifically, the multidestination protocol concepts have been developed to provide efficient use of communication resources for broadcast types of networks such as packet radio. As in packet radio, these protocol concepts are distributed and survivable. The management of multidestination groups for tactical communication systems must address requirements not applicable to more conventional data communication systems such as local area networks and the ARPANET. Extensions to the proposed Internet Group Multicast Protocol standard are described. Multidestination routing concepts, consisting of a multicast and a broadcast routing protocol, for packet radio networks are presented. These multidestination routing concepts will be implemented in packet radio as extensions to the distributed stationless routing protocol currently used.