Deployment Optimization Algorithm for Regional MANET Containing Near Space Vehicles as a Part

Regional MANET which contains near space vehicles as a part is a new kind of Ad hoc network. This paper proposed a deployment scheme for such network based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. For nodes which are near space vehicles, their deployment aims at maximizing joint communication covered space of the network. One particle represents a set of positions of them and optimized deployment positions for near space vehicles can be obtained with iterative method. For controllable backbone nodes on earth surface, their deployment is executed within each groups which they belong and thus one particle represents position of one backbone node. During network initial stage, the deployment aims at maximizing the number of common nodes covered by backbone nodes and minimizing average hops from common nodes to backbone nodes. During network running stage, positions of backbone nodes are dynamically adjusted to best serve their groups. The dynamic deployment mechanism ensures backbone nodes are closest to the most heavily loaded nodes, or to the nodes that generate packets of the highest priority. Simulation results show that the proposed deployment scheme can provides better operation basis for upper layer protocols in terms of network performance metrics such as throughput, latency and control overhead.