Techniques for enabling dynamic routing on airborne platforms

The Department of Defense is developing a global information grid (GIG) that will fully interconnect warfighters, policy makers, and support personnel. To provide the end-to-end connectivity envisioned by the GIG, an airborne networking layer is required. Current technologies must be evolved to develop this capability. An evolution of sorts has already begun, utilizing proven protocols and existing commercial routers. Commercial routers have been used for testing and experimentation at live-fly events such as Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX) and Empire Challenge (EC). Until recently, static routes have been used to enable IP routing between airborne platforms during these exercises. However, static routes are a less than ideal solution for airborne networking, because the routes cannot be adjusted in response to topology changes caused by platform mobility. Consequently, experiments utilizing dynamic routing have been conducted at recent live-fly events. This paper explores approaches to dynamic routing used at recent live-fly experiments including protocol configuration optimizations and internetworking with routing enabled terminals. It reports on performance measurements obtained through lab testing and at live-fly exercises and presents proposed enhancements, including load balancing techniques, for future dynamic routing capabilities.