Mobile Ad Hoc Network-based Monitoring of Battlefields or Rescue Operations in Urban Scenarios

The use of satellites allows monitoring of mobile units with high precision in open environments like deserts. But when rescue operations or battles occur in urban context, humans and vehicles may go across or inside buildings, hence impeding satellite-based monitoring. In that case, a good solution for an accurate monitoring is to mount cameras on all mobile units involved in the operation. The images taken can be collected using a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) connecting all units. These data can be either sent immediately to the headquarter using long range communication or backed up on some of the mobile units for deferred processing. In this paper, we first describe an application that allows real-time and accurate images or video reconstitution of the area covered by the mobile units. The urban area, the mobile units and the application are modeled using the tools provided by the OPNET modeler. Then, we illustrate the deployment of this application on a 50-nodes MANET where the routing protocol is an extension of the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR). Finally, we present the performance of the application evaluated by simulation on the MANET described previously.