Reactive Overlays for Adaptive Routing in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Several emerging applications for the Internet of Things, vehicular networks, or decentralized communication using smartphones rely on Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). These networks are temporary deployments of nodes equipped with infrastructure-less wireless communication. MANETs operate in highly dynamic conditions where nodes move at will, interferences are a constant and density is heterogeneous. Routing is a fundamental operations in MANETs. Our evaluation of existing routing protocol for MANETs shows that, while proactive routing protocols are suitable for highly dynamic networks, reactive routing protocols perform best in dense and more static scenarios. No protocol alone can systematically perform well when density is heterogeneous. We propose RoVy, a self-aware adaptive approach for routing in heterogeneous MANETs. Based on independent estimations of density and mobility, RoVy allows nodes to automatically switch between AODV, a reactive routing protocol and DSDV, a proactive protocol. Interoperability protocols support the integration of AODV and DSDV in a single heterogeneous MANET. RoVy maintains a dissemination overlay to speed-up route discovery and improves the emergence of alternative routes to destination nodes. Our simulations of the full network stack with 1,000 nodes shows that RoVy outperforms singular routing protocols in terms of performance, costs and reliability.