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We present iMANPOL -- a dynamic end-to-end QoS management system for advanced RF telemetry networks with the red-black separation constraints. iMANPOL system encompasses network resource monitoring, allocation, and enforcement techniques to increase throughput and reduce end-to-end delay of telemetry traffic while protecting priority mission-critical flows. These goals are achieved through adaptive techniques for providing Differentiated Services, Admission Control Function, and Flow Preemption. The iMANPOL system has been implemented and tested in an emulated environment. The test results confirm that the admission control, particularly when coupled with preemption, can significantly increase the performance of priority flows in congested networks. An iMANPOL deployment in the integrated enhanced network telemetry would make more network resources available for high-priority tests and enable more dynamic test scheduling., Prepared in collaboration with Applied Research, Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, NJ and Tybrin Corporation, Edwards AFB, CA.

In this paper, we present a case study of emulation workflow in tactical wireless mobile network. The main contribution of this paper is an XML schema which has been recently developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to support high level scenario definition for mobile network emulators in a tool independent manner. In the scenario definition phase, a high level mobility scenario defined using the NRL's XML schema is converted to WISER's run-time emulation files. Using the nodes' locations and terrain information, the RF module performs the relevant calculations and outputs a topology script that depicts node positions and link characteristics (i.e. bandwidth, BER) for all node pairs. To demonstrate emulation scenario definition workflow, Dynamic Routing Control Agent (DRCA) along with the snapshot generation tool is selected as a case study. DRCA, which is a run-time agent, monitors network topology, traffic and capacity and sets the OSPF link metrics dynamically to control routing paths. A snapshot generation tool is integrated with the WISER SDT to identify significant changes in the network. An objective is to identify a small but representative set of snapshots that capture all of the key changes in network topology over the course of a scenario. The above mentioned tools, which are integrated within the WISER SDT, are used to define and analyze DRCA scenarios for the WISER emulation system. EMANE emulation workflow is also described to demonstrate that the NRL's emulation script schema can be used to define scenarios in a tool independent manner., Presented at 2010 Military Communications Conference (2010 MILCOM) held 31 Oct-3 November 2010 in San Jose, CA. Published in the Proceedings of the 2010 Military Communications Conference (2010 MILCOM), p2410-2421, 2010. The original document contains color images.

A fundamental challenge in wireless mobile battlefield networks (WMBNs) is frequent occurrence of wireless link congestion and failures due to blockage, mobility, interference, etc. In case of a link or node failure, the end-to-end session will be disrupted until the underlying routing protocol converges to its new path. We propose an innovative distributed architecture for a seamless multi-layer soft handoff protocol in WMBNs to provide the sub-second convergence in case of link/node failures . Our architecture utilizes a proactive "make-before- break" approach by introducing the concept of pre-computed remote Loop-Free Alternate Paths (LFAPs) on top of local LFAPs proposed by the IETF IP Fast-Reroute framework. We implemented this framework in the laboratory test bed using real COTS routers and collected statistics related to the convergence times and alternate path coverage ratios of local and remote LFAPs. The convergence experiments show that the convergence time of the remote LFAP mechanism is only slightly higher (a few tens of milliseconds) compared to that of the local LFAP. Our coverage analysis showed that, by using only a small neighborhood (e.g., 2-hop neighborhood), a complete LFAP coverage can be achieved for most topologies generated by the BRITE topology generator. These results are significant since the IP fast reroute with a complete coverage can be achieved for WMBNs by introducing only a minimal overhead bounded within a small neighborhood., See also ADM002187. Presented at the Army Science Conference (26th) held in Orlando, Florida on 1-4 December 2008. Published in the Proceedings of the Army Science Conference (26th), 2008. The original document contains color images.