Enhancing TCP and CAC Performance Through Detecting Radio Blockage at the Plain Text Side

Encryption partitions tactical networks into plain text and cipher text sides, and information exchange between these two sides is severely restricted. This paper presents a QoS edge technique, on the plain text side, for detecting radio blockage due to foliage and terrain. Detected blockage can be used to enhance Call Admission Control (CAC) policies by distinguishing between blockage and congestion. Similarly, by distinguishing between blockage and satellite or Link Layer induced delay, this technique can aid decision making as regards the use of a TCP proxy. This detection technique does not preclude but rather complements other blockage mitigation techniques on the cipher text side (e.g., link layer ARQ).