Robustness of network-wide broadcasts in MANETs

Abstract

Network-wide broadcast (NWB) is a common operation in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), which are used to discover routes in routing protocols and to disseminate information in group communication operations. NWB is commonly performed via flooding, which has been shown to be expensive in dense MANETs due to its high redundancy. Existing NWB algorithms target reducing the overhead of NWB operations. In this work, we target another problem that can substantially impact the success of NWBs: since MAC level broadcasts are unreliable, it is possible for critical rebroadcasts to be lost, leading to a significant drop in the node coverage. This is especially true under heavy load and in sparse topologies. We show that the techniques that target reducing the overhead of flooding reduce its inherent redundancy and harm its reliability