Exploiting Location Information and Enabling Adaptive Mobile Ad Hoc Network Protocols

摘要

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) consist of a group of mobile nodes which form a communication network without prior infrastructure. Each node in the network is responsible to provide services to other nodes in order to realize the ad hoc communication capability. A key component and primary challenge in MANETs is routing data packets over multiple hops between nodes. MANET routing has received considerable research interest recently. However, no routing protocol proposed to date has proven to be effective in the wide range of mobility conditions present in a MANET. We combine location information and mobility feedback to create an innovative MANET routing protocol which we prove is effective over a wide range of mobility conditions typical in a MANET. We introduce link duration as our mobility feedback metric, and we demonstrate that mobility feedback using link duration effectively enables adaptive MANET protocols. Using our mobility feedback agent, we develop a hybrid MANET routing protocol which adapts in order to combine the strengths of both component protocols while avoiding their weaknesses. Our hybrid, adaptive protocol achieves data packet delivery ratios above 80% in highly demanding network mobility conditions (i.e. link durations less than 4 seconds and node speeds up to 40 m/s). No existing MANET routing protocol can achieve such high performance operating alone. In addition we show that location information increases the performance of MANET routing. Finally, we develop a comprehensive set of mathematical models for data packet delivery ratio, overhead, and delay. These models confirm the suitability of link duration as a mobility metric, validate our simulation results and conclusions, and provide valuable insight into reactive MANET routing protocol operation.