Design of a Testbed for Studying Rapidly Reconfigurable Tactical Communication Networks

This paper describes the design of a testbed for studying rapidly reconfigurble ground and airborne tactical communication networks which use directed beam couplings between nodes. The networks are subject to rapid changes in connectivity and topology caused by links fading in and out or by mobile users moving into and out of the directed beams. Such networks, which provide improved security, jam resistance and probability of intercept, are viable candidates for tactical use in the 1990s. The testbed has been designed around three major subsystems: the prototype network equipment, the monitor, and the stimulator. The prototype network equipment consists of six nodes, with all required software, and direct wire connections between nodes. The monitor subsystem records the significant arrival and departure times for each packet at each node. It stores this data and processes it to determine appropriate performance parameters. The stimulator subsystem generates packets and injects bit errors and link and node faults into the prototype network. The testbed will be used to develop network architectures and protocols for constructing and reconfiguring networks and to study new types of adaptive routing algorithms and error control. Most of the planned studies will make use of the ability of the network to measure transient network behavior.