Inferring Network Topologies in MANETs Applied to Service Redeployment

Abstract

The heterogeneous and dynamic nature of tactical coalition networks poses several challenges to common network management tasks, due to the lack of complete and accurate network information. In this paper, we consider the problem of redeploying services in mobile tactical networks. We propose M-iTop, an algorithm for inferring the network topology when only partial information is available. M-iTop initially constructs a virtual topology that overestimates the number of network components, and then repeatedly merges links in this topology to resolve it towards the structure of the true network. We perform extensive simulations and show that M-iTop enables an efficient redeployment of services over the network despite the limitation of partial information.