MOBIHOC

On behalf of the organizers, we extend a warm welcome to the first ACM MobiHoc workshop on "Airborne Networks and Communications" to all participants. An airborne network is a mobile network consisting of manned and unmanned air vehicles as well as ground vehicles. The ability of ground and air vehicles to communicate voice, video, and data offers enhanced safety and efficiency for the next generation (NextGen) air transportation systems. Airborne networks can benefit many civilian applications such as air-traffic control, border patrol, and search and rescue missions.

This workshop is a result of the ideas that emerged from the meetings held over the past few years on topics that focused on cyber-physical systems (CPS) for air transportation as well as NextGen aviation systems. We believe that the time is right for airborne networking and communications to be part of main stream conferences. We believe that this workshop is an opportunity for researchers engaged in airborne networking and communications to discuss state-of-the-art, share their research results with their peers, and develop directions for future research in this emerging field.

Airborne networking is a cyber-physical system. While computation, communication and networking elements form the cyber components of the system, flight-paths, maneuver geometries, and multi-mode resources including ground-based nodes and control stations form the physical components of the CPS. The synergy between the cyber and physical components, if explored and exploited, will significantly enhance the safety and security capabilities of Next Generation air transportation systems. However, fundamental design principles which are needed to explore this synergy do not exist and experimental datasets which are needed to develop such design principles are beyond the reach of academic community.

During this workshop, we will hear from experienced speakers coming from the industry, universities, and federal laboratories on topics covering theoretical foundations and models for mobility, connectivity, and coverage, cyber-physical system perspective of airborne networks, airborne/satellite communication and networking platforms and strategies, protocols for secure information sharing, swarming, collaboration, and self-organization, network trials, test-beds, experiments, and measurements and applications of airborne networking to real world domains such as border patrol, air-traffic control, search and rescue missions, and unmanned cargo. We look forward to your active participation in this workshop.