A reliable and hybrid multi-path routing protocol for multi-interface tactical ad hoc networks

Reliable communication in the tactical area networks is critical because successful exchange of tactical information plays a vital role in achievement of military missions. However, this is an extremely challenging task due to several detrimental factors, such as low signal strength, interference and jamming. To increase communication reliability in tactical ad hoc networks, a robust and adaptive routing protocol can be a benefactor. To support this feature, efficient proactive multi-path discovery is desirable for the design of a routing protocol. We describe the shortcomings of such protocols in multi-interface multi-channel environment and present a solution for its effective utilization. In this paper we propose a Reliable and Hybrid Multi-path Routing protocol for tactical ad hoc networks which proactively discovers multiple routes toward every node in the initial phase, taking the link quality and channel diversity into consideration. In addition, we propose a fast error recovery scheme to cope with the potential route failures caused due to node destruction or jamming by enemy. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated with the OPNET simulator and shows good performance in packet delivery ratio and control message overhead.