Opportunistic Situational Awareness Dissemination at the Tactical Edge

Recent advances in commercial and military technology have contributed to an emerging trend to equip soldiers at the edge of tactical communication networks with wireless computing devices capable of sharing situational awareness (SA) data over mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). This paper presents an efficient algorithm called "Opportunistic SA Passing" (OSAP) to share short periodic bursts of SA data. OSAP adopts the philosophy that it is not necessary to guarantee delivery of SA about all nodes in the MANET at all times. Rather, OSAP relaxes this requirement, allowing us to explore the network efficiencies gained by distributing SA about "most" of the nodes (typically greater than 90%). We conducted simulations of OSAP in MANETs ranging in size from a light infantry section (or squad) to a platoon. Compared to three other SA distribution schemes - pure flooding, central collection and broadcast, and an efficient broadcast based on Multi-Point Relay - OSAP requires dramatically fewer frames transmitted and forwarded in the MANET to achieve better than 90% coverage of connected nodes.