Robust Airborne Networking Extensions (RANGE)

The Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routingprotocol for IP networks performs inefficiently when operatedover multihop, broadcast-based radio channels such as IEEE802.11 in IBSS mode. These types of networks are known moregenerally as mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET). The InternetEngineering Task Force (IETF) OSPF working group has beenconsidering extensions to OSPF to enhance performance oversuch channels, and multiple OSPF MANET proposed extensionsare advancing to experimental status. Although OSPF MANETperforms more efficiently within the MANET itself, it has theside effect of propagating large numbers of routing updatesthroughout the rest of the OSPF flooding domain. In this paper,we examine OSPF MANET’s interaction with attached non-MANET networks, and explore various techniques for reducingthe overhead, such as static and dynamic route summarization,route redistribution, cross-layer abstraction techniques, and tun-neling approaches between MANET Border Routers (MBR)s. Weuse a hybrid testbed/emulated network to quantitatively explorethe tradeoffs between different approaches.