Stealth constrained routing optimization using directional antennas in mobile ad-hoc networks

Low probability of detection (LPD) is an important requirement of mobile ad-hoc networks in battlefield applications. Although directional antennas are a suitable means to achieve LPD, related work on the use of directional antennas at the MAC and network layer has been mostly centered on improving network utilization and QoS, while LPD has been mostly addressed at the physical layer. The paper presents a novel scheme to optimize proactive link-state ad-hoc routing algorithms using directional antennas, taking into account LPD requirements. A power control algorithm is used to guarantee that the radiation footprint of a group of mobile nodes is never greater than a predefined maximum, even when directional transmission is allowed. This power control algorithm takes into account the radiation pattern of the antenna, network topology, mobile node positioning and a worst-case propagation model. Preliminary simulation results for the proposed scheme are presented and discussed.