Design and evaluation of a mass configuration protocol (MCONF) for tactical MANETs

We present and evaluate MCONF, a protocol that provides a means to successfully perform a mass configuration change in a MANET, with various modes of operation to account for different operating situations. The root node may unconditionally initiate a change or decide conditionally based on feedback from other nodes. MCONF is designed so that feedback and confirmation messages are sent back to the root node (and therefore to the network control center) in an efficient manner. MCONF does not rely on specific routing or medium access protocols, and therefore can work with a wide range of network and link layer technologies. Protocol performance is tested and validated using emulation for static and mobile topologies, several message sizes, and a range of link loss rates. Based on experimental results MCONF is found to successfully execute a mass configuration change with confirmation for 10-node MANETs with link loss rates approaching 20% and random node mobility.