A tree-based address configuration for a MANET

This paper proposes an address configuration scheme for a MANET. In this paper, the tree-based architecture and the algorithm of constructing a MANET are presented. In this architecture, a proxy node can assign a unique address for neighbor new nodes, so the address configuration task is distributed around all proxy nodes. The transmission of control packets is controlled within one-hop scope, so the cost is reduced and the delay is shortened. Through this architecture, the address resources released by failed nodes can be automatically reclaimed for reuse, so a proxy node has always the sufficient address space for assignment. In order to ensure the uniqueness of a node’s address, the paper also proposes the MANET merging and partitioning algorithms. Finally, this paper evaluates the performance metrics of both the proposed scheme and the existing schemes, and the results show that the proposed scheme reduces the address configuration cost and shortens the address configuration delay.