Safari: A self-organizing, hierarchical architecture for scalable ad hoc networking

As wireless devices become more pervasive, mobile ad hoc networks are gaining importance, motivating the development of highly scalable ad hoc networking techniques. In this paper, we give an overview of the Safari architecture for highly scalable ad hoc network routing, and we present the design and evaluation of a specific realization of the Safari architecture, which we call Masai. We focus in this work on the scalability of learning and maintaining the routing state necessary for a large ad hoc network. The Safari architecture provides scalable ad hoc network routing, the seamless integration of infrastructure networks when and where they are available, and the support of self-organizing, decentralized network applications. Safari’s architecture is based on (1) a self-organizing network hierarchy that recursively groups participating nodes into an adaptive, locality-based hierarchy of cells; (2) a routing protocol that uses a hybrid of proactive and reactive routing information in the cells and scales to much larger numbers of nodes than previous ad hoc network routing protocols; and (3) a distributed hash table grounded in the network hierarchy, which supports decentralized network services on top of Safari. We evaluate the Masai realization of the Safari architecture through analysis and simulations, under varying network sizes, fraction of mobile nodes, and offered traffic loads. Compared to both the DSR and the L+ routing protocols, our results show that the Masai realization of the Safari architecture is significantly more scalable, with much higher packet delivery ratio and lower overhead.     

Power-aware routing protocols in ad hoc wireless networks

An ad hoc wireless network has no fixed networking infrastructure. It consists of multiple, possibly mobile, nodes that maintain network connectivity through wireless communications. Such a network has practical applications in areas where it may not be economically practical or physically possible to provide a conventional networking infrastructure. The nodes in an ad hoc wireless network are typically powered by batteries with a limited energy supply. One of the most important and challenging issues in ad hoc wireless networks is how to conserve energy, maximizing the lifetime of its nodes and thus of the network itself. Since routing is an essential function in these networks, developing power-aware routing protocols for ad hoc wireless networks has been an intensive research area in recent years. As a result, many power-aware routing protocols have been proposed from a variety of perspectives. This article surveys the current state of power-aware routing protocols in ad hoc wireless networks.     

An Energy Consumption Model for Performance Analysis of Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

A mobile ad hoc network (or manet) is a group of mobile, wireless nodes which cooperatively form a network independent of any fixed infrastructure or centralized administration. In particular, a manet has no base stations: a node communicates directly with nodes within wireless range and indirectly with all other nodes using a dynamically-computed, multi-hop route via the other nodes of the manet.Simulation and experimental results are combined to show that energy and bandwidth are substantively different metrics and that resource utilization in manet routing protocols is not fully addressed by bandwidth-centric analysis. This report presents a model for evaluating the energy consumption behavior of a mobile ad hoc network. The model was used to examine the energy consumption of two well-known manet routing protocols. Energy-aware performance analysis is shown to provide new insights into costly protocol behaviors and suggests opportunities for improvement at the protocol and link layers.     

On route lifetime in multihop mobile ad hoc networks

One wireless network architecture that has received a lot of attention recently is the mobile ad hoc network (MANET). It is attractive because the network can be quickly deployed without the infrastructure of base stations. One main feature of MANET is that mobile hosts may communicate with each other through a sequence of wireless links (i.e., in a multihop manner). While many routing protocols have been proposed for MANET by considering criteria such as length, quality, bandwidth, and signal strength [S. Agarwal et al., 2000], [D.B. Johnson et al., 2000], [R. Dube et al., Feb. 1997], [Z. Haas and M. Pearlman, 2000], [M. Jiang et al., 1998], [C. Perkins and P. Bhagwat, Sept. 1994], the issue of route lifetime has not been addressed formally. This paper presents a formal model to predict the lifetime of a routing path based on the random walk model. Route lifetime is derived based on a probabilistic model. Through such investigation, we hope to provide further insight into issues such as route selection, route maintenance, and network scalability related to MANETs.     

Self‐adaptive routing protocols for integrating cellular networks,WLANs, and MANETs

A growing need to have ubiquitous connectivity has motivated our research to provide continuous connection between various wireless platforms such as cellular networks, wireless local area networks (WLANs), and mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). In this paper, we consider integration at the routing layer and propose two adaptable routing protocols (IRP‐RD and IRP‐PD) that exploit topology information stored at the fixed network components (cellular base stations and WLAN access points) for the route discovery and maintenance processes. Our proposed protocols can provide connectivity to the cellular network and/or WLAN hotspots through multihop routing, while differ in the gateway discovery approach used. In IRP‐RD, multihop routes to gateways to the cellular network or WLAN hot spots are discovered on demand, while in IRP‐PD out of coverage users proactively maintain routes to the gateways. Furthermore, proposed protocols can be used in any heterogeneous scenario, combining a cellular network and WLANs operating in infrastructure or ad hoc (MANET) mode. We provide simulation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed integrated routing protocols and show the advantages and drawbacks of each gateway discovery approach in different heterogeneous scenarios. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adding sense of spatial locality to routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in mobile ad hoc networks. In a mobile ad hoc network, each mobile node can freely move around and the network is dynamically constructed by collections of mobile nodes without using any existing network infrastructure. Compared to static networks, it faces many problems such as the inefficiency of routing algorithms. Also, the number of control packets in any routing algorithm increases as the mobile speed or the number of mobile nodes increases. Most of the current routing protocols in ad hoc networks broadcast the control packets to the entire network. Therefore, by reducing the number of control packets, the efficiency of the network routing will be improved. If we know where the destination is, we can beam our search toward that direction. However, without using global positioning systems, how can we do this? Define the range nodes as the 1‐hop or 2‐hop neighbors of the destination node. In this paper, we propose using the range nodes to direct our searches for the destination. It can be combined with the existing routing protocols to reduce the control overhead. We show through simulations that AODV and DSR combined with the range node method outperforms the original AODV and DSR routing protocols in terms of control packets overhead. We also show that the delay introduced in find range nodes is insignificant. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficient routing for wireless mesh networks using a backup path

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have a proven record in providing viable solutions for some of the fundamental issues in wireless networks such as capacity and range limitations. WMN infrastructure includes clusters of mobile ad‐hoc networks connected through a fixed backbone of mesh routers. The mesh network can be constrained severely because of various reasons, which could result in performance degradation such as a drop in throughput or long delays. Solutions to this problem often focus on multipath or multichannel extensions to the existing ad‐hoc routing protocols. In this paper, we propose a novel solution by introducing an alternative path to the mesh backbone that traverses the mobile ad‐hoc networks part of the WMN. The new routing solution allows the mobile nodes (MNs) to establish direct communication among peers without going through the backbone. The proposed alternative ad‐hoc path is used only when the mesh backbone is severely constrained. We also propose, for the first time in WMNs, using MNs with two interfaces, one used in the mesh backbone communication and the other engaged in the ad‐hoc network. A scheme is presented for making the MN aware of link quality measures by providing throughput values to the ad‐hoc on‐demand distance vector protocol. We use piggybacking on route reply messages in ad‐hoc on‐demand distance vector to avoid incurring additional costs. We implemented our solution in an OPNET simulator and evaluated its performance under a variety of conditions. Simulation results show that the alternative ad‐hoc path provides higher throughput and lower delays. Delay analysis show that the throughput improvement does not impose additional costs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic Adaptive Routing for a Heterogeneous Wireless Network

This paper presents an integrated architecture of a Heterogeneous Wireless Network (HWN) and a dynamic adaptive routing protocol (DARP) for a HWN. To allow mobile users versatile communication with anyone or any device at any place and anytime, HWN integrates cellular network with an ad hoc network (independent Basic Service Set) in wireless local area network (WLAN) and reserves advantages of sizable coverage in a cellular network and high data rate in deployable ad hoc network. It also enlarges the scope of communication for ad hoc network and improves the throughput for cellular network. Consequently, nodes in HWN can communicate with each other or access Internet ubiquitously. We also address the routing issues for HWN, because the routing protocol for HWN is different from those used in cellular network or ad hoc network. The dynamic adaptive routing protocol establishes a better path for the source to arrive at the destination across multiple hops or cellular network and provides appropriate QoS (quality of service) in HWN.Through simulation, we will demonstrate the merit of the HWN, proposed routing performance on HWN and overhead of control traffic. A performance analysis of the proposed protocol is depicted. The results of the analysis, and simulations, are presented and discussed.     

Load balanced routing protocols for ad hoc mobile wireless networks - [Topics in ad hoc and sensor networks]

Mobile ad hoc networks are collections of mobile nodes that can dynamically form temporary networks without the need for pre-existing network infrastructure or centralized administration. These nodes can be arbitrarily located and can move freely at any given time. Hence, the network topology can change rapidly and unpredictably. Because wireless link capacities are usually limited, congestion is possible in MANETs. Hence, balancing the load in a MANET is important since nodes with high loads will deplete their batteries quickly, thereby increasing the probability of disconnecting or partitioning the network. This article discusses the various load metrics and summarizes the principles behind several existing load balanced ad hoc routing protocols. Finally, a qualitative comparison of the various load metrics and load balanced routing protocols is presented.     

Secure interconnection protocol for integrated Internet and ad hoc networks

Integration of ad hoc networks with the Internet provides global Internet connectivity for ad hoc hosts through the coordination of mobile IP and ad hoc protocols. In a pure ad hoc network, it is difficult to establish trust relationship between two ad hoc hosts due to lack of infrastructure or centralized administration. In this paper, an infrastructure‐supported and distributed authentication protocol is proposed to enhance trust relationships amongst ad hoc hosts. In addition, an effective secure routing protocol (SRP) is discussed to protect the multi‐hop route for Internet and ad hoc communication. In the integrated ad hoc networks with Internet accessibility, the ad hoc routing security deployed with the help of infrastructure has a fundamental impact on ad hoc hosts in term of Internet access, integrity, and authentication. Both analysis and simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed security protocol. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PACMAN: passive autoconfiguration for mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) enable the communication between mobile nodes via multihop wireless routes without depending on a communication infrastructure. In contrast to infrastructure-based networks, MANET's support autonomous and spontaneous networking and, thus, should be capable of self-organization and -configuration. This paper presents passive autoconfiguration for mobile ad hoc network (PACMAN), a novel approach for the efficient distributed address autoconfiguration of mobile ad hoc networks. Special features of PACMAN are the support for frequent network partitioning and merging, and very low protocol overhead. This is accomplished by using cross-layer information derived from ongoing routing protocol traffic, e.g., address conflicts are detected in a passive manner based on anomalies in routing protocol traffic. Furthermore, PACMAN assigns Internet protocol (IP) addresses in a way that enables their compression, which can significantly reduce the routing protocol overhead. The performance of PACMAN is analyzed in detail based on various simulation results.     

Distributed quality-of-service routing in ad hoc networks

In an ad hoc network, all communication is done over wireless media, typically by radio through the air, without the help of wired base stations. Since direct communication is allowed only between adjacent nodes, distant nodes communicate over multiple hops. The quality-of-service (QoS) routing in an ad hoc network is difficult because the network topology may change constantly, and the available state information for routing is inherently imprecise. In this paper, we propose a distributed QoS routing scheme that selects a network path with sufficient resources to satisfy a certain delay (or bandwidth) requirement in a dynamic multihop mobile environment. The proposed algorithms work with imprecise state information. Multiple paths are searched in parallel to find the most qualified one. Fault-tolerance techniques are brought in for the maintenance of the routing paths when the nodes move, join, or leave the network. Our algorithms consider not only the QoS requirement, but also the cost optimality of the routing path to improve the overall network performance. Extensive simulations show that high call admission ratio and low-cost paths are achieved with modest routing overhead. The algorithms can tolerate a high degree of information imprecision     

Dense cluster gateway based routing protocol for multi-hop mobile ad hoc networks

In a multi-hop mobile ad hoc network dynamic clusterization of nodes can be quite effective for better management of routing problems. In a cluster based protocol inter cluster data transfer takes place through the cluster gateways. Therefore, it is important to maintain information about the gateways as a part of the routing tables in order that the inter cluster routing proceeds smoothly even as the nodes move about. In this paper we propose a randomized approach for inter cluster routing over dense cluster gateways (DCG). A group of large number of gateway edges between two adjacent clusters offering inter cluster connectivity between the two is referred to as a DCG. The minimum number of gateway edges that define a DCG is dependent on the characteristics of particular ad hoc network. A DCG is expected to offer robust inter cluster connectivity as it typically has a large number of gateway edges. Our protocol is an improvement over the cluster based routing using k-tree core backbone proposed in [Information Processing Letters 88 (2003) 187–194]. It distributes the routing load on the cluster gateways without adding the extra overhead of maintaining information about dense cluster gateways. We also propose a heuristic which reduces the load on the cluster-heads. The heuristic elects some nodes to act as sub-cluster-heads which share a part of the workload of the respective cluster-heads. The protocol has been implemented on ns-2 simulator. An analysis of the result of the experiments has been presented.     

SEAD: secure efficient distance vector routing for mobile wireless ad hoc networks

An ad hoc network is a collection of wireless computers (nodes), communicating among themselves over possibly multihop paths, without the help of any infrastructure such as base stations or access points. Although many previous ad hoc network routing protocols have been based in part on distance vector approaches, they have generally assumed a trusted environment. In this paper, we design and evaluate the Secure Efficient Ad hoc Distance vector routing protocol (SEAD), a secure ad hoc network routing protocol based on the design of the Destination-Sequenced Distance-Vector routing protocol. In order to support use with nodes of limited CPU processing capability, and to guard against Denial-of-Service attacks in which an attacker attempts to cause other nodes to consume excess network bandwidth or processing time, we use efficient one-way hash functions and do not use asymmetric cryptographic operations in the protocol. SEAD performs well over the range of scenarios we tested, and is robust against multiple uncoordinated attackers creating incorrect routing state in any other node, even in spite of any active attackers or compromised nodes in the network.     

ABRP: Anchor-based Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks, which do not rely on any infrastructure such as access points or base stations, can be deployed rapidly and inexpensively even in situations with geographical or time constraints. Ad hoc networks are attractive in both military and disaster situations and also in commercial uses like sensor networks or conferencing. In ad hoc networks, each node acts both as a router and as a host. The topology of an ad hoc network may change dynamically, which makes it difficult to design an efficient routing protocol. As more and more wireless devices connect to the network, it is important to design a scalable routing protocol for ad hoc networks. In this paper, we present Anchor-based Routing Protocol (ABRP), a scalable routing protocol for ad hoc networks. It is a hybrid routing protocol, which combines the table-based routing strategy with the geographic routing strategy. However, GPS (Global Positioning System) (Kaplan, Understanding GPS principles and Applications, Boston: Artech House publishers, 1996) support is not needed. ABRP consists of a location-based clustering protocol, an intra-cell routing protocol and an inter-cell routing protocol. The location-based clustering protocol divides the network region into different cells. The intra-cell routing protocol routes packets within one cell. The inter-cell routing protocol is used to route packets between nodes in different cells. The combination of intra-cell and inter-cell routing protocol makes ABRP highly scalable, since each node needs to only maintain routes within a cell. The inter-cell routing protocol establishes multiple routes between different cells, which makes ABRP reliable and efficient. We evaluate the performance of ABRP using ns2 simulator. We simulated different size of networks from 200 nodes to 1600 nodes. Simulation results show that ABRP is efficient and scales well to large networks. ABRP combines the advantages of multi-path routing strategy and geographic routing strategy—efficiency and scalability, and avoids the burden—GPS support.     

A access-based clustering protocol for multihop wireless ad hocnetworks

The ad hoc network is a temporary wireless system without a fixed (wired or wireless) infrastructure. Many clustering algorithms have been proposed to partition mobile users into clusters to support routing and network management. Most previous studies, however, focus on algorithm design, lacking an overall evaluation of clustering overheads. We design a multiple access scheme for the broadcast of control messages, and propose a new access-based clustering protocol (ABCP) whose cluster formation is heavily influenced by the outcome of the multiple access. By taking into account many delicate aspects in the clustering process, the ABCP provides a generic, flexible, rapidly deployed and stable cluster architecture for the upper layer protocols. Simulation is used to compare ABCP with the other clustering strategy in terms of cluster stability and overheads. Since ABCP makes clustering decision directly based on the result of channel access, it requires fewer control overheads and has shorter convergence time than the other clustering criteria. We also demonstrate that the resulting cluster structure by ABCP behaves stable in face of topology changes     

An energy‐efficient clustering approach for collaborative data forwarding in heterogeneous MANET

Mobile ad hoc network consists of a group of mobile nodes that can communicate with each other without any infrastructure. Clustering of the mobile nodes ensures efficient use of available bandwidth and high network throughput. Various clustering schemes are developed to improve the energy efficiency and lifetime of the network. However, there is an increase in the energy consumption with the increase in the number of clusters for forwarding data. This paper presents an energy‐efficient clustering approach for collaborative data forwarding in mobile ad hoc network. The cluster head (CH) is selected based on the processing capability of the nodes and link connection metrics. The CH receives the data from the server and forwards the data to the member nodes at a corresponding data rate of the nodes. Data offloading technique manages the data traffic in the network. The CH rejoining approach enables load balancing in the network. The proposed clustering approach achieves a significant reduction in the energy consumption and data traffic and improvement in the throughput rate through stable routing.     

A Dynamic Alternate Path QoS Enabled Routing Scheme in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a collection of self-organized mobile nodes that are capable of communicating with each other without the aid of any established infrastructure or centralized administration. Routing algorithm has been a challenge task in the wireless ad hoc network for a long time due to the dynamic nature of network topology. A recent trend in ad hoc network routing is the reactive on-demand philosophy where routes are established only when required. The on-demand routing protocol for ad hoc network is appealing because of its low routing overhead and its effectiveness when the frequency of route re-establishment and the demand of route queries are not high. However, considering the increasing demand of Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements in many applications, the current on-demand routing protocols used for ad-hoc network should be adapted appropriately to effectively meet the stringent QoS requirements of specific multimedia traffic. We thus propose a routing protocol which tries its best to satisfy QoS requirements of specific multimedia traffic in the volatile environments of a MANET. The results of a series of simulations exhibit the practicability and feasibility of our approaches. This research was partially supported by National Science Council under grant NSC 93-2213-E-026-001     

A heterogeneous‐network aided public‐key management scheme for mobile ad hoc networks

A mobile ad hoc network does not require fixed infrastructure to construct connections among nodes. Due to the particular characteristics of mobile ad hoc networks, most existing secure protocols in wired networks do not meet the security requirements for mobile ad hoc networks. Most secure protocols in mobile ad hoc networks, such as secure routing, key agreement and secure group communication protocols, assume that all nodes must have pre‐shared a secret, or pre‐obtained public‐key certificates before joining the network. However, this assumption has a practical weakness for some emergency applications, because some nodes without pre‐obtained certificates will be unable to join the network. In this paper, a heterogeneous‐network aided public‐key management scheme for mobile ad hoc networks is proposed to remedy this weakness. Several heterogeneous networks (such as satellite, unmanned aerial vehicle, or cellular networks) provide wider service areas and ubiquitous connectivity. We adopt these wide‐covered heterogeneous networks to design a secure certificate distribution scheme that allows a mobile node without a pre‐obtained certificate to instantly get a certificate using the communication channel constructed by these wide‐covered heterogeneous networks. Therefore, this scheme enhances the security infrastructure of public key management for mobile ad hoc networks. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

IoT energy efficiency routing protocol using FHO-based clustering and improved CSO model-based routing in MANET

Many protocols, services, and electrical devices with built-in sensors have been developed in response to the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things. Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) consist of a collection of autonomous mobile nodes that can form an ad hoc network in the absence of any pre-existing infrastructure. System performance may suffer due to the changeable topology of MANETs. Since most mobile hosts operate on limited battery power, energy consumption poses the biggest challenge for MANETs. Both network lifetime and throughput improve when energy usage is reduced. However, existing approaches perform poorly in terms of energy efficiency. Scalability becomes a significant issue in large-scale networks as they grow, leading to overhead associated with routing updates and maintenance that can become unmanageable. This article employs a MANET routing protocol combined with an energy conservation strategy. The clustering hierarchy is used in MANETs to maximize the network's lifespan, considering its limited energy resources. In the MANET communication process, the cluster head (CH) is selected using Fire Hawk Optimization (FHO). When choosing nodes to act as a cluster for an extended period, CH election factors in connectivity, mobility, and remaining energy. This process is achieved using an optimized version of the Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol, utilizing Improved Chicken Swarm Optimization (ICSO). In comparison to existing protocols and optimization techniques, the proposed method offers an extended network lifespan ranging from 90 to 160 h and reduced energy consumption of 80 to 110 J, as indicated by the implementation results.