Resistance to HF jamming interference in mobile radio networks by an adaptive, distributed reconfiguration technique

In radio communication, interference (and in particular jamming) represents an important limitation to the rate and range of information transfer. In a radio network environment, a combination of relaying and other classes of interference-combatting methods, such as spread spectrum signaling, may achieve highly robust resistance to jamming. Since the presence of relays is an inherent characteristic of a network, it is possible to use some nodes as relays when previously existing direct links are disabled as a result of jamming. The purpose of this report is to show how a distributed algorithm can enable an HF radio network to reconfigure itself to combat various jamming threats. We present models for the communication range that is achievable through the use of HF groundwave signals under both benign and stressed conditions and for cases of narrowband and wideband signaling. The models are used in our simulations. These simulations show that the choice of best frequency for communication in an HF network should not depend solely on communication range in a benign environment.