Integrating mobile IP with ad hoc networks

Extending traditional IEEE 802.11-based access points to incorporate the flexibility of mobile ad hoc networks would help make the dream of ubiquitous broadband wireless access a reality. The authors discuss several issues related to integrating the mobile Internet protocol with Manets.     

Cost-effective mobile ad hoc networks management

As there are more and more mobile devices in use, different mobile networking models such as ad hoc or mesh are attracting a large research interest. Self-organizing mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) allow devices to share their services and resources without any central administration or Internet support. In this respect they can become the backbone of the wireless grid or the gateway to existing grids. To achieve these goals, MANET management must be as effective as that of wired networks. This is, however, a challenging task due to network features like mobility, heterogeneity, limited resources of hosts and feeble communication. This paper presents a set of simple, cost-effective and resilient procedures for the basic tasks of MANET creation and management.     

Robust self-keying mobile ad hoc networks

Pairwise key establishment in mobile ad hoc networks allows any pair of nodes to agree upon a shared key. This is an important security service needed to secure routing protocols, and in general to facilitate secure communication among the nodes of the network.We present two self-keying mechanisms for pairwise key establishment in mobile ad hoc networks which do not require any centralized support. The mechanisms are built using the well-known technique of threshold secret sharing, and are robust and secure against a collusion of up to a certain number of nodes. We evaluate and compare the performance of both the mechanisms in terms of the node admission and pairwise key establishment.     

Model checking mobile ad hoc networks

Modeling arbitrary connectivity changes within mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) makes application of automated formal verification challenging. We use constrained labeled transition systems as a semantic model to represent mobility. To model check MANET protocols with respect to the underlying topology and connectivity changes, we introduce a branching-time temporal logic. The path quantifiers are parameterized by multi-hop constraints over topologies, to discriminate the paths over which the temporal behavior should be investigated; the paths that violate the multi-hop constraints are not considered. A model checking algorithm is presented to verify MANETs that allow arbitrary mobility, under the assumption of reliable communication. It is applied to analyze a leader election protocol.     

Group communications in mobile ad hoc networks

Efficient support of group communications is critical for most ad hoc network applications. However, manet group communications issues differ from those in wired environments because the wireless communications medium has variable and unpredictable characteristics, and the signal strength and propagation fluctuate with respect to time and environment. We provide an overview of group communications issues such as protocol design, state maintenance, and performance. We also discuss representative protocols and examine related issues such as reliability, power conservation, quality of service, security, and areas requiring additional research.     

移动自组网的动态编址问题

作为实现移动自组网自动配置的一个关键问题,综述了节点地址的自动配置的最新进展,描述了设计移动自组网动态地址配置协议所面临的问题,对该问题研究开展以来所提出的各种主要方法和协议进行了详细对比、分析和分类阐述,为进一步的研究提出了新的建议。     

Neighborhood tracking for mobile ad hoc networks

In mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), node mobility causes network topologies to change dynamically over time, which complicates such important tasks as broadcasting and routing. In a typical efficient localized approach, each node makes forwarding decisions based on a neighborhood local view constructed simply by collecting received “Hello” messages. That kind of neighborhood local view can become outdated and inconsistent, which induces a low-coverage problem for efficient broadcasting tasks and a low-delivery ratio problem for efficient routing tasks. In this paper, we propose a neighborhood tracking scheme to guarantee the accuracy of forwarding decisions. Based on historical location information, nodes predict the positions of neighbors when making a forwarding decision, and then construct an updated and consistent neighborhood local view to help derive more precise forwarding decisions. The inaccuracy factors of our scheme are also discussed and an accessory method is provided for possible usage. Simulation results illustrate the accuracy of our proposed tracking scheme. To verify the effectiveness of our scheme, we apply it to existing efficient broadcast algorithms. Simulation results indicate that our neighborhood tracking scheme can improve the protocols coverage ratio greatly.     

Triangle-based routing for mobile ad hoc networks

Routing protocols for Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) have been studied extensively in the past decade. Routing protocols for MANETs can be broadly classified as reactive (on-demand), proactive, hybrid and position-based. Reactive routing protocols are attractive because a route between a source and a destination is established only when it is needed. Such protocols, unlike proactive protocols, do not have high overhead for route maintenance and are especially suitable for networks in which not all nodes communicate frequently. One problem with existing reactive routing protocols is the propagation of redundant route request messages during route discovery. In this paper, we present a low-overhead reactive routing protocol which reduces propagation of redundant route request messages. We also compare its performance with the well-known reactive routing protocol AODV.     

Mobility-sensitive topology control in mobile ad hoc networks

In most existing localized topology control protocols for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), each node selects a few logical neighbors based on location information and uses a small transmission range to cover those logical neighbors. Transmission range reduction conserves energy and bandwidth consumption, while still maintaining network connectivity. However, the majority of these approaches assume a static network without mobility. In a mobile environment network connectivity can be compromised by two types of "bad" location information: inconsistent information, which makes a node select too few logical neighbors, and outdated information, which makes a node use too small a transmission range. In this paper, we first show some issues in existing topology control. Then, we propose a mobility-sensitive topology control method that extends many existing mobility-insensitive protocols. Two mechanisms are introduced: consistent local views that avoid inconsistent information and delay and mobility management that tolerate outdated information. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is confirmed through an extensive simulation study.     

Context-aware broadcasting approaches in mobile ad hoc networks

The aim of this paper is to compare different context-aware broadcasting approaches in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and to evaluate their respective performances. Message broadcasting is one of the core challenges brought up by distributed systems and has therefore largely been studied in the context of traditional network structures, such as the Internet. With the emergence of MANETs, new broadcasting algorithms especially geared at these networks have been introduced. The goal of these broadcasting algorithms is to ensure that a maximum number of nodes deliver the broadcasted message (reliability), while ensuring that the minimum number of nodes retransmit the broadcasted message (efficiency), in order to save their resources, such as bandwidth or battery. In recent years, as more and more mobile devices have become context-aware, several broadcasting algorithms have been introduced that take advantage of contextual information in order to improve their performance. We distinguish four approaches with respect to context: (1) context-oblivious approaches, (2) network traffic-aware approaches, (3) power-aware approaches, and (4) location-aware approaches. This paper precisely aims at presenting these four different broadcasting approaches and at measuring the performance of algorithms built upon them.     

Location awareness in ad hoc wireless mobile networks

Networks composed of dynamically repositioning mobile hosts require location awareness to provide new geographic services and to maximize routing efficiency and quality of service. Because wireless networks can operate in a 3D physical environment, exploiting mobile hosts' location information is both natural and inevitable. Emerging geographic services based on mobile ad-hoc networks (manets) must confront several challenges, including how to increase positioning accuracy and how to establish a connection from location information to the vast body of Web data, as in a tour-guide system for example     

Gathering-based routing protocol in mobile ad hoc networks

A gathering-based routing protocol (GRP) for mobile ad hoc networks is presented. The idea is to rapidly collect network information at a source node at an expense of a small amount of control overheads. The source node can equip promising routes on the basis of the collected information, thereby continuously transmitting data packets even if the current route is disconnected. It results in achieving fast (packet) transfer delay without unduly compromising on (control) overhead performance.     

The message delay in mobile ad hoc networks

A stochastic model is introduced that accurately models the message delay in mobile ad hoc networks where nodes relay messages and the networks are sparsely populated. The model has only two input parameters: the number of nodes and the parameter of an exponential distribution which describes the time until two random mobiles come within communication range of one another. Closed-form expressions are obtained for the Laplace–Stieltjes transform of the message delay, defined as the time needed to transfer a message between a source and a destination. From this we derive both a closed-form expression and an asymptotic approximation (as a function of the number of nodes) of the expected message delay. As an additional result, the probability distribution function is obtained for the number of copies of the message at the time the message is delivered. These calculations are carried out for two protocols: the two-hop multicopy and the unrestricted multicopy protocols. It is shown that despite its simplicity, the model accurately predicts the message delay for both relay strategies for a number of mobility models (the random waypoint, random direction and the random walker mobility models).     

Bandwidth-based routing protocols in mobile ad hoc networks

In this paper, we propose a high performance routing protocol and a long lifetime routing protocol by considering the fact that the bandwidth between two mobile nodes should be different when distances are different. In the high performance routing protocol, to reduce the number of rerouting times, we take the bandwidth issue into account to choose the path with the capability to transmit the maximum amount of data with the help of the GPS. With exchanging the moving vectors and the coordinates of two adjacent mobile nodes, the possible link lifetime of two adjacent mobile nodes can be predicted. Subsequently, a path with the maximal amount of data transmission can be found. With regard to our proposed long lifetime routing protocol, to maximize the overall network lifetime, we find a path with the maximal remaining power after data transmission. With the link bandwidth and the desired amount of data transmitted, the consumption power is computed to obtain the remaining power of a mobile node. Accordingly, we can choose the path with the maximal predicted remaining power to maximize the overall network lifetime. In the simulation, we compare our high performance routing protocol with the AODV and LAWS in terms of throughput, rerouting (path breakage), and route lifetime. With respect to power consumption, we compare our proposed power-aware routing protocol with the POAD and PAMP in terms of the overall network lifetime and the ration of survival nodes to the all nodes.     

Efficient virtual-backbone routing in mobile ad hoc networks

Since the physical topology of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is generally unstable, an appealing approach is the construction of a stable and robust virtual topology or backbone. A virtual backbone can play important roles related to routing and connectivity management. In this paper, the problem of providing such a virtual backbone with low overhead is investigated. In particular, we propose an approach, called virtual grid architecture (VGA), that can be applied to both homogeneous and heterogeneous MANETs. We study the performance tradeoffs between the VGA clustering approach and an optimal clustering based on an integer linear program (ILP) formulation. Many properties of the VGA clustering approach, e.g., VGA size, route length over VGA, and clustering overhead are also studied and quantified. Analytical as well as simulation results show that average route length over VGA and VGA cardinality tend to be close to optimal. The results also show that the overhead of creating and maintaining VGA is greatly reduced, and thus the routing performance is improved significantly. To illustrate, two hierarchical routing techniques that operate on top of VGA are presented and evaluated. Performance evaluation shows that VGA clustering approach, albeit simple, is able to provide more stable (long lifetime) routes, deliver more packets, and accept more calls.     

Routing and security in mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks remove the dependence on a fixed network infrastructure by treating every available mobile node as an intermediate switch, thereby extending the range of mobile nodes well beyond that of their base transceivers. We present four manet routing algorithms along with a hybrid approach, discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and describe security problems inherent in such networks.     

Markovian-based traffic modeling for mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) show very significant difference with respect to other computer networks due to the presence of extremely large packet loss bursts. The development of protocols for mobile ad hoc networks, especially multimedia protocols, require extensive evaluation either through simulation or real-life tests. Such testing consumes a great amount of resources both in terms of time and trace file sizes. Therefore, finding efficient means of reducing the amount of data that is stored and processed is quite important to accelerate the evaluation of different audio/video streaming applications. If, moreover, we are able to model the loss pattern experienced, we can further accelerate the evaluation process.In this work we propose two models based on hidden Markov chains that are able to grasp both packet arrivals and packet loss patterns in MANETs. A simpler two-state model is proposed to model losses when proactive routing protocols are used, while a more complex three-state model is proposed for reactive routing protocols. We also introduce a new set for packet loss pattern measurements that can be of interest for the evaluation of audio/video streaming applications.Experimental results show that the proposed models can adequately reproduce extremely long packet loss patterns, typical of MANET environments, with a high degree of accuracy. Overall, we find that the proposed models are able to significantly reduce both the simulation time and the trace file sizes required.     

DEVS modeling of mobile wireless ad hoc networks

Ad hoc networks are self-organizing wireless systems conformed by cooperating neighboring nodes that conform networks with variable topology. Analyzing these networks is a complex task due to their dynamic and irregular nature. Cellular Automata (CA), a very popular technique to study self-organizing systems, can be used to model and simulate ad hoc networks, as the modeling technique resembles the system being modeled. Cell-DEVS was proposed as an extension to CA in which each cell in the system is considered as a DEVS model. The approach permits defining models with asynchronous behavior, and to execute them with high efficiency. We show how these techniques can be used to model mobile wireless ad hoc networks, making easy model definition, analysis and visualization of the results. The use of Cell-DEVS permitted us to easily develop new experiments, which allowed us to extend routing techniques for inter-networking and multicast routing, while permitting seamless integration with traditional networking models.     

Adaptive routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks

Artificial immune systems (AIS) are used for solving complex optimization problems and can be applied to the detection of misbehaviors, such as a fault tolerant. We present novel techniques for the routing optimization from the perspective of the artificial immunology theory. We discussed the bioinspired protocol AntOR and analyze its new enhancements. This ACO protocol based on swarm intelligence takes into account the behavior of the ants at the time of obtaining the food. In the simulation results we compare it with the reactive protocol AODV observing how our proposal improves it according to Jitter, the delivered data packet ratio, throughput and overhead in number of packets metrics.