Knowledge-based management of multi-hop packet radio networks

The authors have developed a knowledge-based model of network management and applied it to multihop packet radio networks for fault diagnosis and transmission control. The model has two distinctive features: (1) a distributed control concept and (2) the use of the blackboard paradigm as a knowledge-based environment. The focus of the effort has been on diagnosing faults and other abnormal conditions and applying corrective actions. For transmission control, the authors have implemented a control policy based on observed channel occupancy. At the transport level, the messages are segmented/reassembled, and a facility has been created to allow nonuniform traffic among different source-destination pairs. The authors present a brief description of the software testbed consisting of a packet radio network simulation and the blackboard environment, describe the control rules that have been implemented, and summarize the results obtained