Intelligent Cross-Layer Routing Framework Based on D* Lite for Resilient Aerial Networks

Flying Ad Hoc Networks (FANETs) need reliable intra-communication to work effectively during the missions they participate in, especially in contested environments. Furthermore, choosing shortest paths for all e2e links causes over-utilized hot spot nodes in the network. Thus, these hot spots have increased traffic that leads to more collisions around them. Consequently, these central nodes become easy targets for malicious attackers whose aim is to harm the network’s performance as efficiently as possible. To address this, we propose a routing framework (CentAir) that utilizes eigenvector centrality measures of the network nodes to fine-tune their transmission power. Then, it employs D* Lite path-finding algorithm to determine optimal e2e routes under varying network load. As a result, CentAir achieves up to 132% more channel capacity of e2e links compared to shortest path routing algorithms. Additionally, it shows 41% less throughput degradation when jammers are present.