Tactical Data-Oriented Decentralized Communication Scheme in Vehicle-Assisted Networks: Challenges and Solutions

Internet of battle things (IoBT) devices can collect tactical data about wide battlefields. They can facilitate battlefield situational awareness in tactical operation centers (TOCs). However, IoBT devices deployed on battlefields without cellular networks cannot directly communicate with TOCs. These IoBT devices in decentralized tactical edge networks (TENs) need to connect to TOCs through tactical relay networks (TRNs). This article outlines the state-of-the-art TRNs and discusses the priority and challenges of vehicle-assisted TRNs (V-TRNs). To solve the remaining problems in the V-TRN application, this article presents the vehicle-assisted tactical data communication scheme (VTDCS) based on V-TRNs. VTDCS can provide reliable data aggregation in TENs, efficient data uploading from TENs to V-TRNs, aadaptive data forwarding in V-TRNs, and offloading from V-TRNs to TOCs. Experiment results demonstrate that VTDCS can help TOCs obtain battlefield data more rapidly and receive urgent tactical data earlier. Finally, this article provides some suggestions for future research directions.