Airborne networks can be used to transmit vehicle state information among aerospace vehicles, moving platforms, and ground stations for enhancing flight safety, efficiency, and security in a wide range of air transportation systems. Fundamental to the operation and design of airborne networks are issues on the effective dissemination of vehicle state information, efficient use of available radio spectrum for data transmission, and optimal decision-making across the networks. This research project seeks to establish theoretical foundations for some fundamental optimization problems in these issues.
For the effective information dissemination across airborne networks, the research will focus on the selection of aircraft as information centers that provide information for other aircraft. The proper selection of information centers requires that the service cost be minimized, or/and the service time be bounded. For the efficient use of radio spectrum in airborne networks, the project explores the possibility of frequency reuse by properly assigning channels to active transmissions. The proposed research will successfully solve both the hidden terminal problem and the exposed terminal problem. Finally, for the distributed optimal decision-making across airborne networks, the project emphasizes proper modeling and the interplay of vehicle dynamics, communication link performance capabilities, as well as numerical schemes for distributed optimization. In addition, a series of educational activities are planned in order to bring the impacts of this project to the networking research community and classrooms.
