Topology Formation for Tactical Networks With Directional RF and Free-Space Optical Links

This paper addresses the graph theoretical underpinning of forming a topology during the deployment of directional RF or Free Space Optical (FSO) based tactical networks. The objective is to construct a topology that not only has a good reliability, but also supports the maximal delivery of traffic. Given the fact that each node has a limited number of transceivers, the design problem falls into the category of (node) degree-constrained topology optimization problem, for which an exhaustive search or integer programming approach becomes prohibitive for larger networks. As such, they focus on first developing a design guideline based on theoretic analysis and then proposing algorithms.