Multimedia Networking Techniques to Enhance Communications Survivability

The distribution of C² processing for increased survivability has created the need for more robust networks to support the associated C² communications requirements in highly stressed environments. This paper discusses a multimedia network solution to this need in terms of the feasibility, protocol issues, implementation alternatives and performance of multimedia networking techniques. Various communications media including satellite, HF radio, meteor burst, and landline provide different but complementary types of levels of protection from communication threats. The integration of the various media into a single network composed of multimedia nodes and links would increase survivability by providing increased connectivity, alternative routes, alternative communication techniques as well as increased probability of reconstituting surviving islands of communications. The issues associated with designing a multimedia network to take full advantage of such potential survivability enhancements are discussed. Using results obtained through simulation and experiment, multimedia network performance is also discussed for both benign and stressed environments.