Developing a MANET radio for the advanced robotic controller

In conjunction with Exponent Corporation, Sensoria Corporation has developed and demonstrated a secure MANET radio for the U.S. Army's Rapid Equipping Force. This paper summarizes the capabilities of that system, demonstrated with up to forty-three radios. This system is based on an 802.11b physical layer, upon which mobile ad hoc routing, and secure communication has been layered. It provides a self-healing, robust, mesh network that supports VoIP, video telemetry, and other applications via a suite of unicast and multicast TCP/IP protocols. It operates over multiple wireless hops at application data rates of at least 1 Mbps. Each MANET radio includes a wired IP interface for multiple client devices and includes encryption/decryption for application data sent over the radio. This paper discusses results from multiple field trials during the evolution of the system, including implementations leveraging the AODV and OLSR routing protocols.