A Cross-Layer Communications Framework for Tactical Environments

In this paper we propose a cross-layer approach for information and resource sharing between the routing, transport and application-level components in tactical networks. Our approach is different than traditional cross-layer strategies for MANETs in that it focuses on the interaction of each layer (MAC and NET) directly with the overlying applications (or middleware), as opposed to the traditional interactions between neighbor layers in the OSI model. In this work, 'applications' are abstracted by a data-aware communication framework that resides on top of the transport layer and interacts will all sub-layers. The paper describes the requirements for cross-layer integration, and introduces our proposed approach. A proof-of-concept implementation is presented for the agile computing middleware and the OLSR routing protocol