Design and evaluation of a mass configuration protocol (MCONF) for tactical mobile ad-hoc networks

Abstract

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) present a complex management scenario due to the wireless medium, lack of defined infrastructure, and movement of nodes. Making a configuration change to all nodes in a wireless MANET is difficult when reliability must be guaranteed. If performed incorrectly there is the potential to permanently cripple the network.

Based on experimental results the protocol is found to successfully execute a mass configuration change using modes with confirmation for 10-node MANETs with link loss rates approaching 20% and mobile topologies.

Protocol performance is tested and validated using emulation for static and dynamic topologies, several message sizes, and a range of link loss rates. Execution rate, total duration, and the number of sent messages are used as analysis metrics measuring success, speed, and efficiency.

MCONF, the protocol developed and detailed here, provides a means to successfully perform a mass configuration change with various modes of operation to account for different operating situations. The root node may unconditionally initiate a change or decide conditionally based on feedback from other nodes. Nodes may also wait for confirmation from one-hop neighbor nodes before passing messages or executing.

Existing configuration protocols focus on setting up initial node addressing or are intended for full configuration updates. Many are designed for wired networks and fail to operate correctly in a wireless environment. Consensus protocols are more suited to this task, solving the difficult problem of having all nodes arrive at a joint decision. However, they involve more overhead than needed for a configuration change dictated by a single node.