Cognitive MANET Design for Mission-Critical Networks

For mobile ad hoc networks used in network-centric operations, there is a growing need for a systematic methodology for analyzing/predicting the performance of the network over the mission duration. With the advance in cognitive networking as a possible means of exploiting unused spectrum, there is now a growing need to study how to design a cognitive network using an automated methodology. In this article we study the concepts and challenges for automatic design/reconfiguration of cognitive MANETs. We describe the design objectives, imposed constraints, and involved parameters in MANETs. We describe how cognitive techniques can be employed to exploit the unused spectrum in military architectures. We then discuss the challenges facing the design/reconfiguration of a cognitive network and their implications at different network layers. We also describe possible implementation options for designing MANETs that employ cognitive features at all layers.