Disruption tolerant networking proxies for on-the-move tactical networks

A major tenet of network centric warfare is that information sharing is vital to future battlefield superiority. Many plans for implementing NCW envision using IP as the network infrastructure to support information sharing, from wired and satellite networks to tactical networks. Unfortunately, IP implementations depend on the existence of stable end-to-end paths. If a router receives a packet and has nowhere to send it, the packet is dropped. Many tactical networks exhibit disconnections in connectivity that can severely impair, or completely halt, IP traffic. Disconnection tolerant networking (DTN) provides an end-to-end communications service in the presence of network disruptions, including (non-permanent) network partitions. DTN provides its own application programming interface, which is different from the sockets interface commonly used for TCP/IP. One way to adapt existing applications to use DTN is via application layer proxies. These proxies translate from applications´ native use of end-to-end IP-based protocols such as TCP and UDP into DTN messages (bundles) that can traverse disrupted networks. This paper describes how DTN application layer proxies can be used with a CONDOR Jump-C2 class vehicle, using an HTTP (Web)-to-DTN proxy as an example.