| In this paper, we will discuss the past research, ongoing efforts, and our vision in automating network management for military Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs). Major characteristics of MANETs include that they do not need any fixed infrastructure and their network topologies change over time due to node movement. MANET nodes are mobile routers in the sense that they need to perform the packet forwarding function. Their mobility requires the use of radios to enable wireless communication. Because physical environments can be noisy and distance between nodes can change, bandwidth on wireless radio links may fluctuate and disappearing links will result in unstable network connectivity. Past research of MANETs has been focused mostly on enabling technologies such as radios, media access, routing, etc. With the coming of age of these networks, a grand challenge has emerged: how do we manage such networks efficiently and effectively in dynamic and bandwidth-constrained environments?
The characteristics of MANETs are sufficiently different from commercial wired networks to have resulted in a need for paradigms particularly suited for managing MANETs. DRAMA program of the U.S. Army CERDEC was launched to address this need. The DRAMA system is distributed, agent-based, and policy-enabled. It was designed to tackle the challenges posed by MANETs as described above. The use of policies by distributed agents allows the behavior of this network management system to be adaptive to dynamic network condition changes autonomously. DRAMA technologies have realized the state-of-the-art in automating MANET management. However, a DRAMA system relies on policies to function, and currently policies are composed by human administrators. With the understanding that different military missions may require different policies for the networks to function optimally, the following question arises: how do we automatically generate network management policies for various military missions?
We will present our vision of automating military MANET management, and a possible roadmap for achieving it. Past research, ongoing efforts, and future challenges will be discussed.
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| Cho-Yu Jason Chiang received his Ph. D. in Computer and Information Science from the Ohio State University in 2000. He is currently with Applied Research, Telcordia Technologies. His research interest is in the general areas of networking, which includes Web content delivery and distribution, peer-to-peer computing, network auto-configuration, policy-based network management, and mobile ad hoc networks. He is the project lead of several government-funded projects in the area of policy-based computing, network management, and mobile ad hoc networks. Dr. Chiang has published 20+ papers in conference proceedings and journals. |