Dealing with Node Mobility in Ad Hoc Wireless Network

Abstract

A Mobile “Ad hoc” wireless NETwork (MANET) is a network established for a special, often extemporaneous service customized to applications. The ad hoc network is typically set up for a limited period of time, in an environment that may change from application to application. As a difference from the Internet where the TCP/IP protocol suite supports a vast range of applications, in the MANET the protocols are tuned to a specific customer and application (eg, send a video stream across the battlefield; find out if there is a fire in the forest; establish a videoconference among several teams engaged in a rescue effort, etc). The customers move and the environment may change dynamically and unpredictably. For the MANET to retain its efficiency, the ad hoc protocols at various layers may need to self-tune to adjust to environment, traffic and mission changes. From these properties emerges the vision of the MANET as an extremely flexible, malleable and yet robust and formidable network architecture. Indeed, an architecture that can be deployed to monitor the habits of birds in their natural habitat, and which, in other circumstances, can be organized to interconnect rescue crews after a Tsunami disaster, or yet can be structured to launch deadly attacks onto unsuspecting enemies.