Collaborative Research: VINES: Track 2: Disaster-Resilient Communication Systems for Mission-Critical Adaptive Multipath Wireless Networking

Reliable communication during disasters is critical to public safety, emergency response, and national resilience. However, existing networks often fail under conditions such as infrastructure damage, congestion, mobility, and intermittent connectivity. These limitations prevent timely delivery of critical data such as situational awareness, video, and telemetry from field operations. The project addresses this gap by developing a new approach to communication that remains robust even when networks are degraded or highly variable. The work advances the state of networking by enabling systems to use multiple available connections simultaneously and adapt in real time to changing conditions. The outcomes will improve the ability of first responders, public safety agencies, and mobile and airborne platforms to maintain reliable communication in challenging environments. In addition to advancing scientific understanding of resilient communication systems, the project will contribute to workforce development through student involvement and collaboration between industry and academia, and will support broader societal goals related to public safety and national defense, directly advancing the national interest. The project develops the Disaster Resilient Communication System (DRCS), a network-layer system that integrates a coding-based data plane with an adaptive control plane to enable reliable communication across heterogeneous and dynamic network environments. The system is designed for disaster recovery environments, where network infrastructure may be partially unavailable, links are heterogeneous and unreliable, and communication must continue across whatever connectivity remains available. The data plane uses fountain-style erasure coding to distribute encoded data across multiple paths, allowing recovery from loss without relying on retransmissions tied to individual paths. The control plane dynamically adjusts path selection, traffic allocation, and delivery strategies based on real-time network feedback, including loss, delay, and congestion signals. The system supports operation across diverse connectivity options such as cellular, satellite, and wireless links. The system is deployed entirely at the endpoints and does not require any modifications to intermediate network infrastructure, enabling immediate deployment over existing networks without requiring upgrades to routers, base stations, or other in-network elements. In addition, the system incorporates endpoint-based integration of low-latency congestion signaling, preserving the benefits of low-latency operation without requiring explicit support from intermediate network elements. The research includes development of multipath coordination algorithms, receiver-side delivery scheduling mechanisms to stabilize output, and timing control techniques that bound delivery attempts to predictable time windows. The project will validate these capabilities through a series of demonstrations in controlled and real-world environments, including urban wireless testbeds and mobile platforms. The expected outcome is a deployable system that provides reliable, adaptive communication in conditions where existing transport mechanisms perform poorly, advancing the design of next-generation resilient network systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.