AD-HOC NETWORK ROUTING PROTOCOL INCLUDING THE USE OF FORWARD AND REVERSE MULTI-POINT RELAY (MPR) SPANNING TREE ROUTES

摘要

A method of operating an ad-hoc network having a plurality ofwireless nodes includes operating the wireless nodes using a routing protocol,such asOLSR, so that the wireless nodes store forward multi-point relay (MPR)spanning treeroutes and reverse MPR spanning tree routes. A first wireless nodecommunicateswith a second wireless node using a reverse MPR spanning tree route. Themethodfurther includes determining whether the reverse MPR spanning tree route hasbecome unavailable between the first and second wireless nodes and that nootherreverse MPR spanning tree route has yet become available, and, if so, using atleastportions of a forward MPR spanning tree route for communication between thefirstand second wireless nodes. The symmetric OLSR approach may be effective inavoiding unnecessary route drops caused by the interaction betweendistribution-of-topology-change-information conditions and exclusively routingvia the destinationnode's reverse-MPR-spanning tree.