Utilization of Concurrent Buffers to Facilitate Seamless Data Transition in Tactical Cellular Communications

The Department of Defense increasingly depends on secure, interoperable data networking. Emergence of devices leveraging media-independent handover technology, based on the IEEE 802.11 standard that was released in 1997 and addresses wireless local area networks. It also offers potential benefit to tactical networking. However, full implementation of IEEE 802.21-enabled networks for tactical use is currently infeasible due to design and deployment constraints. This thesis serves to further research in the field of media independent handover, particularly with respect to enduring Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sessions across heterogeneous media handovers. The principal purpose of the research is to introduce a top-level design for managing TCP sessions across the IEEE 802.21 handovers by instituting a set of synchronized TCP sockets across which an actual TCP session is tunneled. Included in the design is consideration for security of data at rest. To provide context, the tactical network environment is modeled using two current tactical simulations to demonstrate the degree to which tactical networks are subject to link discontinuities. The link discontinuities produce less than optimal communications in which an 802.21-enabled network may assist or mitigate. The original document contains color images.