CHENG_LAYOUT_Layout 5/7/14 1:12 PM Page 138
ENABLING NEXT-GENERATION AIRBORNE
COMMUNICATIONS
Design Considerations for
Next-Generation Airborne
Tactical Networks
Bow-Nan Cheng, Frederick J. Block, B. Russ Hamilton, David Ripplinger, Chayil Timmerman,
Leonid Veytser, and Aradhana Narula-Tam
This work is sponsored by
the Assistant Secretary of
Defense Research and
Engineering (ASD-R&E)
through Air Force Con-
tract #FA8721-05-C-
0002. Opinions,
interpretations, recom-
mendations and conclu-
sions are those of the
authors and are not nec-
essarily endorsed by the
United States Govern-
ment.
Bow-Nan Cheng, Freder-
ick J. Block, B. Russ
Hamilton, David Rip-
plinger, Chayil Timmer-
man, Leonid Veytser, and
Aradhana Narula-Tam
are with MIT Lincoln
Laboratory.
138
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ABSTRACT
Airborne tactical networks (ATNs) have pro-
vided protected air-to-air communications for
military aircraft for several decades. To support
emerging and future warfighter needs, the next
generation of systems will require significant
improvements to provide higher capacity, longer
range, greater flexibility, and increased interop-
erability. Governed by domain characteristics
such as long transmission ranges, low-to-medium
data rates, latency constraints, and link protec-
tion needs, the air tactical domain poses several
unique requirements on link and network design.
Developing next-generation ATNs requires an
understanding of the airborne tactical domain,
including the design constraints and challenges
at various layers of the network stack. In this
article, we provide an overview of the unique
domain characteristics of ATNs and highlight
the key design challenges and research areas
associated with the physical, link, and network
layers.
INTRODUCTION
Airborne tactical networks (ATN) have been a
critical communications capability for a number
of decades, enabling information sharing
between both manned and unmanned military
aircraft as well as surface and ground plat-
forms. Similar to the commercial world, mili-
tary communications needs have evolved and
grown immensely, and there is a desire to sup-
port an ever-increasing number of users and
emerging applications. To enable the promise
of net-centric operations for the warfighter,
technologies for the next generation airborne
tactical network must evolve to provide more
capacity, higher robustness, increased flexibility,
better connectivity, improved interoperability,
and faster response times for airborne and
ground users.
Challenges in designing ATNs arise from the
high cost of platform integration, limited avail-
0163-6804/14/$25.00 © 2014 IEEE
ability of spectrum, the need to support larger
numbers of users in an infrastructure-less envi-
ronment, the desire to provide much higher data
rates and lower latencies, and the complexity in
managing the numerous potential network
requirements. Many of today’s ATNs meet these
diverse and stringent requirements through a
vertically integrated solution that tightly couples
all layers of the network stack from the applica-
tion layer down to the physical layer, wherein
communications is essentially an integrated
extension of the platform applications. Although
the concept of modularity is a foundation of the
current Internet, the air tactical domain has
embraced a tightly coupled, vertically integrated
architecture in hopes of increasing efficiency.
Unfortunately, this has led to a lack of interop-
erability and the inability to upgrade layers inde-
pendently.
Future ATNs will need a hierarchical, modu-
lar architecture similar to that of the Internet to
knit together the various heterogeneous systems
at a common convergence layer and improve
interoperability. By converging on the network
layer, waveform/radio developers can focus on
building link and physical layer technologies
independent of application developers, and
applications can be defined to work over the
converged network, thereby allowing seamless
operation over heterogeneous systems. Network
layer convergence also enables the coordinated
and collaborative utilization of the multiple het-
erogeneous communications links available on
most platforms, thereby providing increased
robustness, improved performance, and higher
availability. Modular designs enable easier tech-
nology refresh and decoupled evolution of algo-
rithms and technologies.
Although improved antenna and radio fre-
quency (RF) technologies can increase potential
data rates and performance, the cost of platform
integration of these new components can be pro-
hibitive, and the ability to procure spectrum in
alternate bands is becoming more difficult. As a
result, we consider signal processing and net-
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working technology approaches that may reuse
existing or planned platform RF antenna and
hardware technologies with or without substan-
tial RF hardware upgrades. We focus on three
key areas of research that have the potential to
provide large improvements in network connec-
tivity, capacity, and interoperability for ATNs:
physical layer design, medium access control
(MAC) layer design, and network layer design.
Enhanced designs of the physical layer to incor-
porate modern signaling and coding techniques
can increase capacity and reliability. Develop-
ment of efficient MAC protocols can improve
bandwidth efficiency and reduce latency by
reducing guard times and allowing dynamic con-
figurability. Modular network layer architectures
such as those used in the commercial Internet
community can enable interoperability through
IP convergence, multi-hop reachability for longer
range communication, ease of configuration and
management, and design simplicity reducing
redundant and sometimes conflicting efforts at
multiple coupled layers.
In the commercial world, wireless capacity
and capability leverages the proliferation of a
wired infrastructure. For example, much wireless
communication is via a single wireless hop to cell
towers connected by optical fiber links. This type
of infrastructure is not available in the airborne
tactical domain, and as such, the network that
needs to be designed is a highly mobile ad hoc
network (MANET). Much of the research on
MANETs as well as lessons learned from ground
network implementations can be leveraged, but,
as described below, the airborne tactical domain
can be quite different from various ground com-
munications domains, with unique requirements
and environmental characteristics.
In this article, we first overview the air tacti-
cal domain characteristics, identifying typical
traffic requirements, communications ranges,
communications channel characteristics, interfer-
ence considerations, spectrum sharing and usage
requirements, and platform integrability con-
straints. Next, we highlight the design considera-
tions for next-generation ATNs at the physical,
link, and network layers of the network stack,
identifying:
• The key characteristics of the environment
as they impact each layer.
• The key design challenges.
• Areas of research where contributions could
provide significant ATN performance
improvements.
Although we propose a modular approach to
introduce and design ATNs, these sections high-
light how choices at the physical layer clearly
impact designs at the MAC layer and vice versa.
A modular network layer approach enables inte-
grating multiple and diverse physical/link layers.
The goal is to help researchers and protocol
designers understand key design considerations
for improving ATN performance through physi-
cal, link/MAC, and network layer technologies.
DOMAIN CHARACTERISTICS
Developing next-generation ATNs requires an
understanding of the communications require-
ments, environmental conditions, and platform
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Airborne tactical networks
Latency
constraints
One-to-many
traffic
Signal aircraft
body blockage
100s of km
Figure 1. Unique domain characteristics of airborne tactical networks.
integration constraints that comprise the air-
borne tactical domain. The airborne tactical
domain has several unique characteristics that
need to be accounted for by protocol and system
designers. As shown in Fig. 1, ATNs are often
characterized by the following.
Low data rates: Many of today’s tactical
applications require transmitting short messages
and as such, many communications needs can be
fulfilled with low data rates. Future applications,
however, could potentially consume larger data
rates. Due to limited spectrum and the need for
interference mitigation capabilities, ATNs typi-
cally operate on the order of 10’s of Kbps to
100’s of Kbps. Protocols that rely on flooding
and network-wide synchronization of link infor-
mation can consume too much bandwidth.
Significant multicast traffic: Much of the
traffic carried by ATNs is designed to be
received by multiple participants. Network
design must prioritize one-to-many type traffic
over traditional unicast approaches.
Latency constraints: ATNs carry time-sensi-
tive information, thus much of the pipeline is
optimized for latency guarantees, and it is impor-
tant to drop out-of-date messages to reduce inef-
ficient resource utilization.
Long transmission ranges: Typical transmis-
sion ranges can exceed 500 kilometers, depend-
ing on altitude, modulation, code rate, and
transmit power. Additionally, because neighbor-
ing aircraft can be anywhere from a few meters
to hundreds of kilometers away, propagation
delays between nodes vary from nanoseconds to
milliseconds, and the received powers from dif-
ferent transmitters can differ by several 10s of
decibels. Such large differences in power can
cause the weaker signal from the far node to be
completely lost due to interference from the
stronger near node.
Body blockage effects: Although there is little
to no multipath fading in airborne links, aircraft
body blockage can add seconds to minutes worth
of outages that need to be accounted for in pro-
tocol design. Body blockage effects vary signifi-
cantly due to operational frequencies, the
placement of the antenna(s), and orientation of
the aircraft.
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The physical layer is
responsible for vari-
ous encoding and
signaling functions
that enable transmis-
sion and reception of
bits over a wireless
medium. Two of the
major challenges in
designing physical
layers for next-gener-
ation ATNs are the
airborne wireless
channel and interfer-
ence resiliency.
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Mobility patterns: Some tactical aircraft
maintain predictable orbits to form communica-
tions relays while others fly attack runs. When
aircraft are engaged, the mobility patterns can
be very sporadic. While many studies have been
performed on MANET routing protocols with
random waypoint mobility and trajectory-based
mobility, much less work has been done in pre-
dictable orbit mobilities with realistic aircraft
maneuvering.
Spectrum considerations: Spectrum availabil-
ity is limited, so new systems must coexist with
existing systems. Efficient use and sharing of
available spectrum is highly desired.
Operation in adversarial environments: Air-
borne tactical networks operate in environments
where adversaries might actively target the sys-
tem. This may require employment of interfer-
ence mitigation, jam resistance, and secure
protocols.
High cost of platform integration: Installing
new RF hardware and antennas on existing air-
craft can incur significant integration costs. Evo-
lution of new system technologies may be
facilitated by reusing existing antennas and RF
hardware. Due to the high cost of platform inte-
gration, the life of many existing systems are
decades long. Deployments of new designs must
have an integration path where new and old sys-
tems coexist.
The unique domain characteristics governing
ATNs help frame design constraints and consid-
erations. In the following section, we will identify
how these domain characteristics impact the
design of the first three layers of the network
stack.
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Informed by the ATN domain characteristics,
this section examines the key design challenges,
potential solutions, and areas of future research
at the physical layer, the link/MAC layer, and
the network layer.
PHYSICAL LAYER DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The physical layer is responsible for various
encoding and signaling functions that enable
transmission and reception of bits over a wire-
less medium. Two of the major challenges in
designing physical layers for next-generation
ATNs are:
• The airborne wireless channel.
• Interference resiliency.
In this subsection, we detail these two issues and
how they affect the design of ATN physical lay-
ers.
The channel in an airborne MANET differs
significantly from that in a terrestrial network. In
ground networks, the channel between two nodes
tends to be dominated by fading. In ATNs, how-
ever, two communicating aircraft will often have
line-of-sight (LOS) connectivity even if separat-
ed by several hundred kilometers. Although
there may be limited multipath and fading due
to ground reflection [1] and aircraft antenna
blockage [2], which are highly dependent on air-
craft geometry, antenna placement, and ground
terrain, these effects are generally much lower
than those experienced in ground-to-ground
communications. Another key difference from
terrestrial networks is the much higher relative
velocity between nodes, potentially causing sig-
nificant Doppler frequency offsets for which the
receiver must compensate.
The large region over which an aircraft has
LOS coverage allows the communication links to
span large distances. Design of airborne commu-
nications systems must balance the tradeoff of
using omni-directional communications versus
directional communications techniques. Omni-
directional systems simplify connectivity by low-
ering coordination overhead, but require high
power transmissions to close long-distance links.
Additionally, omni-directional systems cause sig-
nificantly higher interference to neighbors.
Directional systems can provide additional gain
and minimize interference, however, antenna
size constraints may require the use of higher
carrier frequencies which suffer more from the
Doppler shift. Additionally, the use of direction-
al antennas requires accurate pointing, which
may be complicated by the high mobility of the
aircraft.
In ATNs the path loss may vary by over 50 dB
due to the different ranges of neighboring air-
craft. Link adaptation may be needed to handle
such a wide range of channel conditions. Using
higher code rates and more spectrally efficient
modulation when distances are small and path
loss is relatively low can improve spectral effi-
ciency. Spatial reuse increases (and hence over-
all network capacity improves) by reducing
power levels when transmitting to nearby nodes
[3]. However, even with power and rate adapta-
tion, the radio still needs to be able to discern
near and far users. Due to the extreme ranges in
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the radios will
require a sophisticated analog front end.
The LOS range of the aircraft may make
them susceptible to interference from other
ground or airborne systems operating in the
same band, and the airborne network may sim-
ilarly cause interference to these other systems
(Fig. 2). As an example, Link 16 operates in
the aeronautical radio navigation bands
(960–1215 MHz) for ground/aircraft and satel-
lite and employs techniques to minimize inter-
ference to these systems [4]. Attempts to reduce
the potential for interference by limiting use of
particular channels to certain geographic regions
must account for both the large LOS distances
and the high mobility of the aircraft. A further
complication for tactical airborne networks is
that the interference may be hostile and not
amenable to mitigation through coordination.
Interference resiliency can be achieved through
waveform design (e.g., spread spectrum tech-
niques [5]). Multiuser detection (MUD) can also
be beneficial if interference is due to other net-
work nodes. Successful use of MUD brings many
challenges, such as the complexity of processing
large numbers of users and, if ad hoc networking
is used, the potential lack of coordination
between nodes [6]. Although MUD is often con-
sidered in conjunction with direct-sequence code
division multiple access (CDMA), it can also be
applied to other signaling techniques such as fre-
quency-hop spread spectrum. In this case, the
MUD receiver may need to handle only a small
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number of users colliding on a hop, and addi-
tional complexity may result from having to esti-
mate the relevant channel parameters on a
hop-by-hop basis [7]. Antenna directivity can
also provide interference mitigation.
The primary concern for the implementation
of an airborne tactical radio is its size, weight,
and power (SWaP). The signal processing
requirements of such a radio are approximately
on the same order as a modern mobile phone.
However, the production volume which enables
investments in SWaP miniaturization in the com-
mercial cellular world simply does not exist in
the airborne tactical market. Directional anten-
nas, advanced receiver technologies (to capital-
ize on spread spectrum and/or MUDs), and
challenges associated with fast-moving airborne
platforms further increase the SWaP of the
modem. Additionally, large and relatively ineffi-
cient high power amplifiers (HPAs) are required
to establish and maintain the desired link ranges
of several hundred kilometers.
Production of a cost-effective yet appropri-
ately sized radio is difficult, and generally forces
many technology tradeoffs. Multi-packet recep-
tion (MPR) and MUD techniques may signifi-
cantly reduce the effects of network
congestion/interference and increase overall
throughput. However, these techniques come at
a high cost to modem SWaP requirements. In
the case of MPR, the modem must be designed
with multiple demodulators to process the addi-
tional packets, dramatically increasing all three
variables in the SWaP equation. In some cases
the processing speed of the demodulators may
be increased to reduce the size and weight of the
modem, at the cost of increased power. MPR
significantly improves spectral efficiency by
enabling improved sharing of the communica-
tions channel, and as hardware capabilities con-
tinue to improve, the increased SWaP is often
justified. Technologies such as staring receivers
enabling the reception of multiple packets simul-
taneously have been demonstrated. The number
of packets that can be received concurrently as
well as the number of packets that can be simul-
taneously processed impacts hardware complexi-
ty, and again there is a tradeoff between
capability and SWaP. The effects of MUD pro-
cessing are directly related to the method of
detecting multiple transmissions and how that
information is exploited within the modem.
From the myopic viewpoint of modem complexi-
ty and SWaP, MUD processing is very costly;
however, the increased throughput and protec-
tion from certain types of interference may justi-
fy those costs.
LINK/MAC LAYER DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The link and medium access control (MAC)
layer is responsible for establishing RF links
between neighboring aircraft, informing the net-
work layer of these links and their current condi-
tions, and managing access to shared network
communication resources with some notion of
fairness between aircraft. ATNs are often
designed to operate over a wide bandwidth, for
example, by frequency hopping. In such a case,
radios can tolerate a significant amount of multi-
ple-access interference, and the MAC can be
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Figure 2. The altitude of the airborne network makes it susceptible to inter-
ference from a variety of sources such as navigation systems, radar, etc.
Link 16, for example, operates in the aeronautical radio navigation fre-
quency band which is heavily occupied by a number of ground, airborne,
and satellite systems.
designed to allow multiple simultaneous trans-
missions and MPR. While these techniques
increase the effective capacity of the network,
they also complicate the MAC and physical layer
design. The MAC must control the multiple
access interference, ensure the receiver process-
ing capabilities at each node are not exceeded,
and limit the losses due to transmit-while-receive
interference, as most radios will cause self-inter-
ference to their receiving subsystem while trans-
mitting. In designing link/MAC layers for
next-generation ATNs, the major design chal-
lenges are suitably managing the interference
associated with a spread spectrum MPR system
under:
• Long and highly varying propagation delays.
• Varying receive power levels.
In this subsection, we detail these two issues and
how they may be addressed in the design of
ATN link/MAC layers.
The problem of medium access control in
ATN mobile ad hoc environments is much more
complicated than those of centralized or fixed
networks. Specifically in ATNs, the distances
between nodes can range from tens of meters to
hundreds of kilometers, meaning that the propa-
gation delay can range from tens of nanoseconds
for nearby nodes to several milliseconds at
longer ranges, as illustrated in Fig. 3. In most
WiFi networks and cellular networks, there is a
central access point that is wired into the Inter-
net and provides one-hop wireless connectivity
to client devices. This setup makes medium
access control straightforward, since the access
point can control which device transmits or
receives at any time in a centralized manner.
Furthermore, since the central access point can
act as a common receiver to all of the client
devices, the devices can synchronize their trans-
missions based on when their signals arrive at
the access point. Unfortunately, in a full mesh
MANET (such as an ATN) there is no computa-
tionally efficient method to compensate for dif-
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100s of km
ms prop. delay
10s of meters
<µs prop. delay Large propagation
delay issue
Figure 3. Addressing long propagation delays and near-far issues are two
key design considerations of the link/MAC layer in ATNs.
ferences in propagation delay, especially since
much of the traffic is broadcast or multicast and
hence must be received by multiple destinations.
In ATNs, the duration of each transmission
needs to be limited to several milliseconds, at
most, in order to meet the low-latency con-
straints of tactical networks. Since the variation
in the propagation delays is on the same order
as the transmission duration, transmissions that
are completely separated in time at one node in
the network could overlap (collide) at another
node [8]. Carrier sensing is a technique, com-
monly used in ad hoc WiFi networks, where a
radio first listens to the channel for a short time
before transmitting and then only transmits if
the channel is idle. ATNs, however, cannot
leverage this approach because the propagation
delay can be on the same order of magnitude as
the transmission duration.
Two viable ATN MAC options include the
traditional random access protocol (ALOHA),
where a node, based on information gathered
about the current local network conditions,
waits a random amount of time (the backoff)
between transmissions. In a scheduled MAC,
either nodes or links in the network are explicit-
ly assigned time to transmit. Scheduling has an
advantage over random access in that it can pre-
cisely control which nodes or links in the net-
work are active at any time. The result is higher
throughput per link. Random access requires
less node coordination and generally enables
lower latency operations, but inherently lacks
precise coordination, which may lead to exces-
sive collisions or underutilization of the medi-
um. In a narrowband wireless local area network
(WLAN), it is well known that the inefficiencies
of random access result in a throughput capacity
only 1/e of scheduling if time is slotted (1/2e if
time is unslotted) [9]. However, with a wide-
band ATN using frequency hopping, it has been
shown that the disparity in the throughput
between scheduling and random access is not
nearly so great [10].
A dynamically scheduled MAC protocol
potentially provides throughput benefits due to
the precise control of the multiple access inter-
ference and the ability to limit node transmis-
sions during scheduled receptions. In a
frequency-hopped system with MPR, the sched-
uler must assign multiple simultaneous transmis-
sions and concurrent listeners across multiple
frequency bands in a consistent manner for all
neighbors. Coordination and control of the
schedule in a distributed manner trades off over-
head, complexity, scheduling gains, and network
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stability. One method to lower the overhead in
dynamic scheduling is to reduce the amount of
state information exchanged by using implicit
scheduling, such as Lyui’s algorithm [11], where
a single slot request can result in additionally
obtaining some previously unused slots in the
schedule. Another inefficiency of scheduling is
guard times. In order to ensure that a packet is
both transmitted and received within a designat-
ed time slot, a guard time at least as long as the
maximum propagation delay in the network
takes up the latter portion of every slot.
Similar to other wireless networks, ATNs suf-
fer from the near-far problem [12]. This is the
problem of maintaining a far link while there is
significant nearby unintentional or intentional
interference. The far transmitter can improve
the link by increasing power or lowering the data
rate. Traditional power control techniques
applied in cellular (centralized) networks are not
as useful since a user that increases its power to
transmit to a far node will cause additional inter-
ference to nodes in its local neighborhood. In a
frequency-hopped system, a source far from the
receiver can use additional coding to mitigate
the interference, as not all hops will generally be
lost. In some cases, it may be desirable to pro-
vide a higher data rate to the far link. When the
primary source of interference is from neighbor-
ing multiple-access nodes, an alternative solution
is for the nearby nodes to coordinate with the
disadvantaged receiver and transmit at a lower
power or less frequently. Other mitigations
include MUD and prioritization of nodes/links
within the backoff algorithm. Finding the right
balance between these techniques merits further
research to determine both the optimal solution
and the required coordination.
NETWORK LAYER DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
For future ATNs, an appropriately designed net-
work layer architecture enables several desired
capabilities. First, convergence at the network
layer provides a mechanism for carrying traffic
over multiple heterogeneous links and systems
and is one of the key elements for enabling
interoperability. Second, the network layer
enables the ability to autonomously add and
remove nodes and links from the network. Third,
providing multi-hop routing at the network layer
enables end-to-end traffic delivery despite under-
lying time-varying topology and link dynamics.
When systems tightly couple the design of the
application, network, link, and physical layers,
system interoperability is generally provided
from one system to another through application-
layer gateways. These gateways translate applica-
tion-layer messages between each pair of
systems, creating an n 2 translation problem.
Alternatively, by leveraging the hierarchical
modular principles that made the Internet a suc-
cess and converging on Internet Protocol (IP) as
the common addressing scheme (not necessarily
the full TCP/IP suite), future ATNs can enable
easier interoperability.
Many platforms carry multiple radio systems
designed to operate either in different environ-
ments or to transmit different message sets. The
ability to seamlessly interconnect these heteroge-
neous radio systems enables additional robust-
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ness in the face of typical airborne environments

which are susceptible to interference (uninten- Radio Radio Radio
tional or intentional), link outages due to anten- system 1 system 2 system 3
na blockages from aircraft maneuvering, and
weather [2].
Net Net Net

Legacy systems
Future ATNs can also leverage MANET (custom) (custom) (custom)
technologies to enable automatic node discovery
and route self-healing. As a result, network flexi- Link Link Link
bility and range are increased significantly. In (custom) (custom) (custom)
order to make this modular, IP-converged design
approach feasible for ATNs, several key compo- Phy Phy Phy
nents are needed: (custom) (custom) (custom)
• Header compression.
• Radio-to-router interface (R2RI) definition.
• Multi-topology MANET routing.
In tactical networks, many of the messages
are short. By moving to IP, headers may domi-
nate the traffic and waste precious resources. A
voice-over-IP (VoIP) transmission between two Router
aircraft might incur 60 bytes of header (40 bytes
IPv6, 8 bytes UDP, 12 bytes RTP) for a 10-18 Network layer
(modular)
byte message, depending on the codec used.

Employing commercial header compression
techniques can potentially reduce this to 4-6
bytes. Additionally, pushing IP packets through
Link 16 is inefficient because IP headers con-
sume much of the limited Link 16 capacity [13].
In previous work [14], commercial IP header
compression protocols as well as a new proposed
stateless header compression approach, MANET
IP Header Compression (MIPHC), were evalu-
ated for suitability in the MANET environment.
It was shown that commercial header compres-
sion techniques work fairly well in a MANET
environment because of the ability to re-use pre-
viously built state between compressor and
decompressor even though the topology is regu-
larly changing. However, these techniques suffer
from potential security vulnerabilities on state
setup and refresh. MIPHC did not provide as
much compression gains as the commercial
stateful protocols, however it provided lower
latency operation and resilience toward attack.
Cross-layer optimization can be achieved
through two main methods, as shown in Fig. 4:
• Tightly coupling the network stack and
allowing multi-hop routing decisions to
access link layer information directly.
• Modularizing key components by defining
the radio or link layer to provide the best
one-RF hop possible, using an external
router to perform multi-hop routing, and
defining a standard radio-to-router inter-
face (R2RI) to pass relevant information
between the radio and router.
One of the advantages of a tightly coupled design
approach is the potential for cross-layer design
and optimization to enable efficient utilization of
the limited wireless resources. It is well known
that by jointly optimizing routing and medium
access control, significant capacity gains can be
achieved [15]. However, this approach limits the
system to homogeneous nodes and links.
With a modular network architecture, effi-
cient and informed use of the multiple heteroge-
nous links can be enabled by passing cross-layer
information between the radio and the router.
Link quality, reliability, availability, SNR, and
other statistics affect the usability of a link, and
an informed network layer can leverage this
Next-generation ATNs
Pass cross
Common
interface layer info
Link Link Link
PHY PHY PHY
Radio/ Radio/ Radio/
waveform waveform waveform
Figure 4. IP convergence, a common path to passing cross-layer informa-
tion, and routing with heterogeneous link technologies are key aspects of
the network layer design.
information to optimize and tailor routing deci-
sions to traffic flows. Similarly, higher-layer
information provided to the link layer allows the
link layer to optimize link resource allocation
based on traffic priority or end-to-end delivery
requirements.
To enable the cross-layer optimization with
physically separate and diverse radio and router
components, a standardized radio-to-router
interface (R2RI) is needed. Several R2RI tech-
niques are explored in [16], and it was discov-
ered that although access to instantaneous link
information speeds up reaction to link outages,
modifying routes based on small changes to link
metrics can yield significantly higher overhead
and instability. Open areas of research include
the definition of clear and appropriate standard-
ized metrics, design and optimization of routing
protocols to effectively use the link metrics, and
flow control strategies between the router and
radio. Abstracting radio systems to a set of links
with associated link metrics through the R2RI
enables research into multi-topology routing
protocols that leverage a heterogeneous set of
links and link metrics to provide efficient, stable,
and resilient routing over multiple radio paths.
Although there are some schemes that have
been proposed [17], a holistic test with represen-
tative links is still needed.
ATN nodes must be able to relay information
to enable longer range and connectivity. Due to
their long transmission ranges (100s of kilome-

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CHENG_LAYOUT_Layout 5/7/14 1:12 PM Page 144
Design Consideration Research Challenges
–Techniques to share spectrum with long-range
Spectral reuse (Physical omni-directional transmissions.
Layer) –Link adaptation (power and rate) to provide
spectral efficiency.
–Techniques to overcome interference from
Interference resilience
intentional or unintentional sources (spread
(Physical Layer)
spectrum, directional antennas, MUD, etc.).
–Efficient medium access control in spread
spectrum systems with long propagation delays.
Long propagation delays –Random access MAC backoff to manage node
(Link Layer) and channel resources.
–Dynamically scheduled MAC algorithms and
coordination.
Near-far problem (Link –Near-far interference mitigation via coordinated
Layer) power control, adaptive coding, MUD.
–IP Convergence layer.
–Separate radio (1 RF hop) functionality from
Radio interoperability router (multi-hop) functionality.
(Network Layer) –Radio-to-router interface definition and
appropriate standard metrics to pass from radio
to router.
–Leveraging link metrics in routing decisions with
Unicast/Multicast MANET
network stability.
routing over heteroge-
–Multi-topology routing over heterogeneous links.
neous radios (Network
–Effective QoS and admission control in tactical
Layer)
network.
Table 1. Summary of airborne tactical network design considerations.
ters), the number of RF hops for area coverage
may be only 3 to 4. Although aircraft speeds are
much higher than ground speeds, the airborne
transmission range to mobility speed ratio yields
significantly less frequent topology changes due
to mobility than in a ground environment. Fur-
thermore, the airborne environment does not
suffer from much fading. In an airborne environ-
ment, the primary cause for more frequent topol-
ogy changes may be due to link outages from
airframe blockage and interference. As a result,
robust unicast and multicast MANET routing
protocols are needed to dynamically elect relays
and re-route information under varying link con-
ditions and topology changes. Link outages are a
function of the transmission frequency as well as
the location of the antennas on the aircraft. In
some scenarios, the routing overhead associated
with maintaining routes in ATNs may be rela-
tively insignificant compared to available rates
[18]. Additional research is needed to fully char-
acterize airborne links as a function of frequen-
cy, antenna placement, aircraft, and mobility.
Additional higher-layer research challenges
include techniques to handle efficient multicast
dissemination in a heterogeneous environment,
congestion control and admission control to pro-
vide suitable network performance, and the abil-
ity to interoperate with legacy non-IP systems.
There is also a need to develop a framework
that enables rapid and flexible development of
IP-based airborne applications.
144
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SUMMARY
Table 1 highlights the key domain characteris-
tics, design considerations, and research chal-
lenges associated with each layer of the network
stack as it pertains to ATNs.
CONCLUSION
The current generation of airborne tactical net-
works (ATNs) are a set of links, networks, and
applications that allow communication between
military aircraft. To support growing warfighter
needs, the next generation of airborne tactical
data links will need to provide higher capacity,
longer range, greater flexibility, and increased
interoperability between diverse systems. This
article provides an overview of the ATN domain
characteristics. These domain characteristics,
such as high mobility, long transmission ranges,
low data rates, constrained bandwidths, interfer-
ence and blockage, latency requirements, etc.,
frame the environment under which ATNs must
operate.
Informed by these domain characteristics,
some critical design considerations for next-gen-
eration ATNs were presented as well as areas
for future research. At the physical layer, inter-
ference resilience and spectral reuse considera-
tions lead to potential research in spectrum
sharing, multiuser detection, and interference
mitigation techniques. At the link layer, the long
propagation delays and near-far problem domi-
nate medium access control designs and research
in developing efficient and flexible channel shar-
ing mechanisms is needed. At the network layer,
converging on IP and separating the radio capa-
bility (one RF hop) from router functionality
(multi-hop) enables greater interoperability and
heterogeneity. Heterogeneous systems have the
potential to provide increased robustness
through frequency diversity, path diversity, and
capability diversity. Efficiently leveraging multi-
ple heterogeneous radio systems is also a signifi-
cant research challenge. Some of the techniques
and considerations described here may also
apply to next-generation commercial airborne
MANETs.
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BIOGRAPHIES
BOW-NAN CHENG (bcheng@ll.mit.edu) is a member of Tech-
nical Staff in the Airborne Networks Group at MIT Lincoln
Laboratory. His research interests include design, develop-
ment, prototyping, and test and evaluation of next genera-
tion routing and information disseminations solutions for
airborne backbone and tactical networks. Recent work has
focused heavily on radio-aware routing, which leverages
link layer information at the network layer to enhance
multi-hop MANET routing. He received M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees in computer systems engineering from Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute and holds a B.S. degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-
paign.
FREDERICK J. BLOCK (fblock@ll.mit.edu) is a member of the
Technical Staff in the Advanced Satcom Systems and Oper-
ations Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He received the
B.S. (summa cum laude), M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electri-
IEEE Communications Magazine • May 2014
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cal Engineering from Clemson University, Clemson, SC. His
research interests include spread-spectrum communica-
tions, multiuser techniques, and packet radio networks. Efficiently leveraging
BENJAMIN “RUSS” HAMILTON (benjamin.hamilton@ll.mit.edu)
multiple heteroge-
received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Auburn Uni- neous radio systems
versity in 2005, his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Com-
puter Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology is a significant chal-
in 2007 and 2012. While at Georgia Tech, he performed
research on synchronization and channel estimation in lenge. By abstracting
wireless systems and focused on distributed estimation in
wireless networks for his dissertation. After receiving his
radios to a set of
Ph.D., he joined the Communications division of MIT Lin- links and associated
coln Laboratory as a member of the Technical Staff. His
research focuses primarily on communications and net- link metrics, efficient
working in the airborne tactical domain.
multi-topology
DAVID RIPPLINGER (david.ripplinger@ll.mit.edu) is an Associ-
ate Staff member in the Airborne Networks Group at MIT
routing mechanisms
Lincoln Laboratory. His research interests include theoreti- can be employed
cal optimization, design, simulation, and testing of new
protocols for wireless networks, with an emphasis on to route over
medium access control (MAC) design. Recent work has
focused on characterization of the behaviors of random heterogeneous links
access and scheduling MACs in a frequency hopping envi-
ronment, as well as the design of low-overhead, distribut-
simultaneously.
ed random access protocols. He received an M.S. in
Computer Science and a B.S. in Physics and Spanish Trans-
lation from Brigham Young University.
CHAYIL TIMMERMAN (ctimmerman@ll.mit.edu) is a member of
Technical Staff in the Advanced Satcom Systems and Oper-
ations Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. His research inter-
ests include design, development, and implementation of
advanced communications systems. Recent work has
focused on tactical communications systems, high band-
width satcom systems, and dynamic code rate adaptation.
He holds a M.S. from Villanova University and a B.S.E.E.
from Drexel University.
LEONID VEYTSER (veytser@ll.mit.edu) is a member of the Air-
borne Networks Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. His
research interests include routing and distributed comput-
ing in disadvantaged wireless networks. His recent work
has focused on enhancing application performance at the
tactical edge as well as radio-aware routing in airborne
and tactical networks. He received his B.A. and M.A.
degrees in Computer Science at Boston University.
A RADHANA N ARULA -T AM (arad@ll.mit.edu) is an Assistant
Leader of the Airborne Networks Group at MIT Lincoln Lab-
oratory. Her research interests include topology design,
resource scheduling, MANET capacity, networking proto-
cols, and Quality of Service. She has worked on a variety of
systems including optical networks, satellite communica-
tion systems, and tactical wireless communication systems.
She holds a B.S.E. degree from the University of Pennsylva-
nia and S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, all in electrical engineering.
145