Fairness investigation in Ad hoc networks

Abstract

The paper proposes a mechanism to introduce fairness in ad hoc networks. This mechanism should avoid to stress the same hosts in the packet relaying. In fact, nodes used as router are often the same, especially if no mobility is present. This is because, in classic routing protocols, the cost functions do not vary (are usually equal to 1), and then, if no particular channel fluctuations or topology variations are present, routes selected to reach a given target involve the same central nodes. The proposed fairness scheme acts on the cost function of a given link, by multiplying it by an increasing weight every time the link is used; so, its further utilization is discouraged.