Summary:

This page describes a cooperative research program between the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and researchers in the Departments of Electrical Engineering (EE) and Computer and Information Sciences (CIS).

Background:

In January 1996, the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) awarded three research contracts to consortiums of industrial and acedemic research laboratories. These Federated Laboatories are in three areas: Advanced Sensors, Telecommunications and Information Distribution, and Advanced Displays.

The University of Delaware CIS and EE departments are part of the Federated Laboratory in telecommunications and information distribution. This consortium, nicknamed ATIRP, is headed by the Sanders Division of Lockheed Martin. Other partners include Motorola, GTE, Bellcore, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland, City College of New York, and Howard University. In addition, Morgan State University is an affiliated member.

Loosely speaking, this consortium is charged with researching the future of telecommunications and information distribution for the army. Some of this involves finding ways to transition legacy equipment to new uses; others involve proposing entirely new equipment, e.g., for the soldier of the future.

Other URLs:

UD Faculty and Their Tasks:

Paul Amer, Professor CIS and EE, PhD in Computer and Info Science, Ohio State University, 1979. Personal web page: http://www.cis.udel.edu/~amer/. Email to amer@cis.udel.edu

Task 2.3: Formal Spec and Interoperability Testing of Protocols We are investigating the use of the Estelle ISO formal specification technique for specifying the Army communication services and protocols Milestones include: Report on the use of Estelle to formally specify MIL-STDs (e.g., 188-220A); VHDL-Estelle interoperability report; Generating test cases from Estelle Spec for MIL-STDs

Task 4.4: Adaptive Multimedia Protocol and Synchronization Problems We are investigating an innovative transport protocol called Partial Order Connection (POC). (See Internet RFC 1693.) POC supports multimedia operating over network service characterized by relatively (1) high error rates and (2) low bandwidth-to-propagation -delay ratios, the precise environment expected under battlefield conditions using SINCGARS radios. Milestones include: Implementation of POC running under Sun Solaris OS.

Gonzalo Arce

Charles Boncelet, Professor EE and CIS, PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Princeton University, 1984. Personal web page: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~boncelet/. Email to boncelet@udel.edu.

Task 3.2: Tactical Data Distribution and Situation Awareness. We will incorporate the Army's Fact Exchange Protocol into the data distribution for the dismounted soldier. Milestones include a demonstration of autonomous database updates. In FY1997 or FY1998, we intend to deliver a RFC to the Internet Egineering Task Force.

Task 4.2: Multimedia Compression Schemes for Point-to-point and Multi-point Applications. We are investigating three areas: compression of binary images, compression of still images, and the transport of compressed video. The first two task should be finished in a year; the third is expected to take two to three.

Errol Lloyd, Professor and Chair CIS, PhD in Computer Science, MIT, 1980. Personal web page: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~elloyd/. Email to elloyd@udel.edu.

Task 1.3: Adaptive Distributed Routing, Resourse and Mobility Management Over Heterogeneous Networks in a Hostile Environment. The project is concerned with fully dynamic scheduling and routing in packet radio networks. Early milestones include a report on issues associated with fully dynamic scheduling algorithms and experimental studies of distributed and centralized scheduling algorithms. In FY1997 the focus is on the development of distributed and fully dynamic scheduling methods.

David Mills, Professor EE, PhD Computer and Communication Sciences, University of Michigan, 1971. Personal web page: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/. Email to mills@udel.edu.

See personal web page for lots of detail.

Lori Pollock, Assistant Professor, CIS, PhD in Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh, 1986. Personal web page: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~pollock/. Email to pollock@cis.udel.edu.

Tasks 2.3: Formal Specifications and Interoperability Testing of Protocols. This project is concerned with the development of user-friendly tools for the formal specification and testing of communications, control and network management protocols. The early milestones include an investigation into the interoperability of VHDL and Estelle including requirements for the automatic conversion between the two formal languages.

Tuncay Saydam, Personal web page: http://www.cis.udel.edu/~saydam

Adarsh Sethi, Associate Professor CIS, PhD in Computer Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 1978. Personal web page: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~sethi/. Email to sethi@cis.udel.edu.

Task 1.3: Battlefield Mobile Traffic Resource Mangement. We are applying our prior research on Virtual Trees (for bandwidthmanagement and call admission in ATM networks) to mobility management in battlefield wireless networks. We are examining the use of a single consolidated Virtual Tree configuration for bandwidth management, call admission, and call handoff in battlefield environments.We are also developing MAC layer protocols and LLC layer scheduling techniques that support hard, soft, and non real-time packets.

Task 2.2: Proxy Architectures for Hierarchical Network Management. We are designing and implementing a proxy architecture based on a spreadsheet paradigm for hierarchical management of battlefield networks. This architecture fits naturally into the existing Internet management framework and provides for a distribution of the management and control functions.

Task 2.3: Formal Spec and Interoperability Testing of Protocols. We are investigating the use of the Estelle ISO formal specification technique for specifying the Army communication services and protocols. Milestones include: Report on the use of Estelle to formally specify MIL-STDs (e.g., 188-220A); VHDL-Estelle interoperability report; Generating test cases from Estelle Spec for MIL-STDs.

UD Graduate Students on the Project:

• Vishal Bhatia
• Yin Bao
• Phill Conrad
• Hong Cui
• Mariusz Fecko
• Ed Golden
• Sami Iren
• Pramod Kalyanasundaram
• Dan Lau
• Xiaopeng Ma
• Rahmi Marasli
• Michael Markowski
• Prashant Ramarao
• Maire Reavy
• Tom Way
• Cheer-Sun Yang
• Sakir Yucel, http://www.cis.udel.edu/~yucel
• Dong Zhu

Publications:

1997 Advanced Telecommunications/Information Distribution Research Program Annual Conference, College Park, MD, 21-22 Jan 1997:

• A Spreadsheet­Based SNMP Scripting Environment for Battlefield Network Management A. Sethi, P. Kalyanasundaram, C. Sherwin, D. Zhu; University of Delaware
• Formal Design of Communication Protocols Based on the Estelle ISO Formal Description Technique. P. Amer, A. Sethi, M. Fecko, M. Uyar.; University of Delaware
• Authentication Scheme for Distributed, Ubiquitous, Real-Time Protocols D. Mills; University of Delaware
• Performance Issues of Tactical Internet Architectures S. Chamberlain, C. Boncelet; ARL, University of Delaware
• Nonlinear Signal Decompositions for Scaleable Video Communications G. Arce; University of Delaware
• A New Method for Transmitting Binary andFacsimile Images, C. Boncelet, M. Reavy; University of Delaware
• Inconsistencies in EFSM Models for VHDL Specifications, M. Uyar, A. Duale, City College of New York, University of Delaware
• Partially­Ordered, Partially­Reliable Transport Service for Multimedia Applications, P. Amer, P. Conrad, E. Golden, S. Iren, A. Caro.; University of Delaware
• Experimental Results on Broadcast Scheduling in Radio Networks, E. Lloyd, X. Ma; University of Delaware
• The Generic Service Management Architecture, S. Yucel, T. Kusano, T. Saydam; University of Delaware
• Virtual Tree Path Management for Battlefield Networks, A. Sethi, P. Ramarao; University of Delaware
• Wireless MAC Protocols Supporting Real­Time Battlefield Communications, M. Markowski, A. Sethi; University of Delaware
• Identifying Redundant Test Cases for Testing Parallel Language Constructs, C.­S. Yang, L. Pollock; University of Delaware

Scholarly publications:

• M.J. Markowski and A.S. Sethi, ``Evaluation of Wireless Soft Real-Time Protocols''. Proc. RTAS '96, IEEE Real-Time Technology and Applications Symposium, Boston, MA (June 1996).
• P. Kalyanasundaram, A.S. Sethi, and C.M. Sherwin, ``Design of a Spreadsheet Paradigm for Network Management'', Proc. DSOM'96, Sixth IEEE International Workshop on Distributed Systems: Operations and Management, L'Aquila, Italy (Oct. 1996).
• Block arithmetic coding and its application to the JBIG algorithm,'' M. Reavy and C. G. Boncelet Jr. , Proceedings of the 1996 ISITA Conference, Vancouver Canada, Sept. 1996.
• ``Robust source coding for images over very noisy channels,'' L. Marvel, A. Khayrallah, and C. G. Boncelet Jr. , Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, Lausanne Switzerland, Sept. 1996.
• ``Robust source coding of images for tactical channels,'' L. Marvel and C. G. Boncelet Jr. , Proceedings of the 20th Army Science Conference, Norfolk VA, June 1996.
• R. Marasli, P. Amer, P. Conrad. ``An analytic study of partially order transport services,'' Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, (in press)
• R. Marasli, P. Amer, P. Conrad. ``Optimizing partially ordered transport services for multimedia applications,'' in Multimedia Modeling: Towards The Information Superhighway, (Courtiat, Diaz, Senac, eds), World Scientific Pub Co, Singapore, 1996, 185-204
• P. Amer, G. Burch, A. Sethi, D. Zhu, T. Dzik, R. Menell, M. McMahon. ``Estelle specification of MIL-STD 188-220A data link layer,'' Proc MILCOM '96, McLean, VA, 10/96
• R. Marasli, P. Amer, P. Conrad. ``Retransmission-based partially reliable transport service: An analytic model,'' Proc IEEE INFOCOM 96, San Francisco, 3/96, 621-629
• P. Conrad, E. Golden, P. Amer, R. Marasli. ``Multimedia document retrieval using partially-ordered/partially-reliable transport service,'' Proc Multimedia and Computing Networking 96, San Jose, 1/96
• A.F. Lobo and A.S. Sethi, ``A Cooperative Congestion Management Scheme for Switched High-Speed Networks,'' Proc. ICNP-96, International Conference on Network Protocols, Columbus, Ohio (Oct.-Nov. 1996), pp. 190-198.
• Y. Bao and A.S. Sethi, ``Efficient Resource Management for Satisfying Diversified QoS Guarantees,'' Proc. Eleventh IEEE Workshop on Computer Communications, Reston, VA (Sept. 1996).

Technical Reports:

• M.J. Markowski and A.S. Sethi, ``Analysis of a Soft Real-Time Random Access Protocol'', Technical Report No. 96-02, Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE (November 1995).
• Yin Bao and A.S. Sethi, ``A Real-Time QoS Control Scheme for Satisfying Diversified Delay Bound and Loss Ratio Requirements'', Technical Report No. 96-08, Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE (April 1996).
• P. Kalyanasundaram, A.S. Sethi, and C.M. Sherwin, ``Design of a Flexible MIB for a Proxy Based Spreadsheet Paradigm'', Technical Report No. 96-09, Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE (April 1996).
• A.S. Sethi and P. Ramarao, ``Bandwidth Allocation Algorithms for Virtual Trees,'' Technical Report No. 97-09, Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE (December 1996).
• A.S. Sethi, P. Kalyanasundaram, C.M. Sherwin, and D. Zju, ``A Spreadsheet-Based Proxy Architecture for Battlefield Network Management,'' Technical Report No. 97-10, Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE (December 1996).

Revised 14 Jan 1997. Comments to boncelet@udel.edu.