Quality of service routing in tactical mobile ad hoc networks

Wireless communications will in the future be an important part of the tactical operations. Requirements on the network are robustness, security, mobility and guaranteed quality of service, QoS. It is important that the capacity or a maximum allowed delay of a connection can be assured. Mobile ad hoc networks are infrastructureless networks with no centralized administration which today can fulfil some of the demands. The nodes in the network can communicate over multiple hops using a routing protocol. The method for routing is of major importance for the grade of utilization of the capacity in the network. Routing in a mobile ad hoc network is difficult because the network topology may change constantly which gives us imprecise information about the links. QoS routing is one way to make it possible to give guarantees about capacity in an ad hoc network. A study and an evaluation of the existing routing protocols for ad hoc networks and their adaptability to guarantee QoS have been done. The conclusion is that little work has been done in this area, but a lot of methods are under development. Proactive protocols are best suited to use all information in the network and create good routes.