Improving Scalability in Tactical Ground Radio Networks by Using Relay Nodes

Scalability is an issue for ground tactical radio networks, as increasing numbers of nodes and flows compete for the capacity of each link. The introduction of a relay node allows additional routes for traffic flows. Greater benefit is achieved by fixing the relay node at a higher elevation to allow it to broadcast to all other nodes simultaneously, thereby reducing the number of hops packets must travel. We use a combination of linear programming (LP) and novel bounds on the achievable network performance to investigate the benefits of such a relay node. We show that a relay node provides moderate improvement under an all-to-all unicast traffic model and more substantial improvement for broadcast traffic patterns.