1.

INTRODUCTION

The advent of ubiquitous computing and the proliferation of portable

computing devices have raised the importance of mobile and wireless networking.

Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET) are specific network configurations that appear

in the context of these networks. They provide a powerful paradigm for modelling

self-configuring wireless networks which make them so appropriate to use in the

fourth generation mobile networks. In recent years, Ad-Hoc Networks have seen a

significant explosion of activities due to their ease of deployment in response to some

application needs together with the availability of low cost peripherals (laptops,

palmtops) equipped with wireless interfaces.

1.1. Motivation

Since the emergence in the 1970’s (Donald, 1995), wireless communication

between mobile users is becoming more popular than before. This is due to recent

technological advances in laptop computers and wireless data communication devices

such as wireless modem and wireless Local Area Networks (LAN).

There are two distinct approaches for enabling wireless communication

between two hosts. The first is to let the existing cellular network infrastructure carry

data as well as voice. Most of the wireless mobile computing applications today

require single hop wireless connectivity to the wired network. This is the traditional

cellular network model, which supports the current mobile computing needs by

installing Base Stations (BSs) and access points. In such networks, communications

between two mobile hosts completely rely on the wired backbone and the fixed BSs.

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A mobile host is only one hop away from a BS. The major problems include the

problem of handoff, which tries to handle the situation when a connection should be

smoothly handed from one station to another base station without noticeable delay or

packet loss. The other problem is that networks based on the cellular structure are

limited to places.

The second approach is to form an Ad-Hoc network among all users wanting

to communicate with each other. At times, however, no wired backbone infrastructure

may be available for use by a group of mobile hosts. Also there might be situations in

which setting up fixed access points is not a viable solution due to cost, convenience

and performance considerations. Still the group of mobile users may need to

communicate with each other and share information between them. In such situations,

an Ad-Hoc network can be formed. An Ad-Hoc Network is a temporary network

operating without the aid of any established infrastructure of centralized

administration or standard support services regularly available on the wide area

network to which the hosts may normally be connected (Johnson, 1994). This means

that all users participating in the ad-hoc network must be willing to forward data

packets to make sure that packets are delivered from source to the destination. This

form of network is limited in range by the individual nodes transmission ranges and is

typically smaller compared to the range of cellular systems. This does not mean that

the cellular approach is better than the ad-hoc network approach. Ad-hoc networks

have several advantages compared to traditional cellular infrastructure systems. These

advantages include:

• On demand setup

• Fault tolerance

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 • Unconstrained connectivity

Ad-hoc networks are created, for example, when a group of people come

together and use wireless communication for some computer based collaborative

activities; this is also referred to as spontaneous networking (Feeney, Ahlgren, and

Westerlund 2001). Ad-hoc networks do not rely on any pre-established infrastructure

and can therefore be deployed in places with no infrastructure. This is useful in

disaster recovery situations and places with non-existing or damaged communication

infrastructure where rapid deployment of a communication network is needed. Ad-

hoc networks can also be useful at conferences where people participating in the

conference can form a temporary network without engaging the services of any pre-

existing network. Since the nodes are forwarding packets for each other, some sort of

routing protocol is necessary to make the routing decisions.

1.2. Applications of Ad-hoc networks

With the increase of portable devices as well as progress in wireless

communication, the number of applications for ad-hoc networks has increased. Ad-

hoc networking can be applied anywhere where there are wireless devices connected

to a network. In areas where no infrastructure such as the internet is available an ad-

hoc network could be used by a group of wireless mobile hosts. This can be the case

in areas where a network infrastructure may be undesirable due to reasons such as

cost or convenience. Examples of such situations include disaster recovery personnel

or military troops in cases where the normal infrastructure is either unavailable or

destroyed.

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 Other examples include business associates wishing to share files in an airport

terminal or a class of students needed to interact during a lecture and conference

scenarios where attendees want to be able to easily share files. If each mobile host

wishing to communicate is equipped with a wireless local area network interface, the

groups of mobile host form an ad-hoc network. Ad-hoc networks are also suitable for

networking in locations without any existing wired infrastructure such as data

collection in open fields and sensor networks. Access to the internet and access to the

resources in networks such as printers are features that probably will also be

supported.

1.3. Characteristics of Ad-Hoc Networks of Mobile Nodes

Mobile nodes have many unique characteristics that make traditional routing

protocols inapplicable. Ad-hoc networks are often characterized by a dynamic

topology due to the fact that nodes change their physical location by moving around.

This favours routing protocols that dynamically discover routes over conventional

routing algorithm like distance vector and link state (Peterson and Davie, 1999).

Another characteristic is that a host/node has very limited CPU capacity, storage

capacity, battery power and bandwidth, also referred to as a “thin client”. This means

that the power usage limits the radio transmission range. The access media, the radio

environment, also has special characteristics that must be considered when designing

protocols for ad-hoc networks. One example of this may be unidirectional links.

These links arise when for example two nodes have different strength on their

transmitters, allowing only one of the hosts to hear the other, but can also arise from

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disturbances from the surroundings. Multihop in a radio environment may result in an

overall transmit capacity gain and power gain, due to the squared relation between

coverage and required output power. By using multihop, nodes can transmit the

packets with much lower output power. The protocol should be self starting and it

should be loop free at all times, because even a temporary routing loop wastes the

scare bandwidth. Routing protocol is necessary in ad-hoc network, if two hosts wishes

to exchange packets which may not be able communicate directly. A number of

routing protocols have been proposed (Royer and Toh 1999; Sisodia et al 2002) which

were derived from distance vector or link state (Tanenbaum 2002) based on classical

routing algorithms.

Figure 1.1 illustrates an ad-hoc network with three mobile hosts. Node C is not

within the range of Node A wireless transmitter. If node A wishes to exchange

packets with node C, then it makes use of node B to forward packets, since node B is

an overlap between node A and node C. This situation becomes more complicated if

more nodes are added within the network. An Ad-hoc routing protocol must be able to

decide the best path between nodes, minimize the bandwidth overhead to enable

proper routing, minimize the time required to converge after the topology changes.

Figure 1.1 Ad-hoc network of three mobile hosts

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1.4. Taxonomy

Mobile ad-hoc network protocol (MANET) routing protocols are classified

according to several criteria as shown in Figure 1.2, reflecting the fundamental design

and implementation choices.

• Communication model

• Structure

• State information

• Scheduling

1.4.1. Communication model

Protocols can be designed based on multi-channel and single channel

communication. Multi-channel protocols are low-level routing protocol, which

combines channel assignment and routing functionality. Such protocols are used in

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

based networks. Examples include Clusterhead Gateway Switch Routing Protocol

(CGSR).

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Figure 1.2 Classification of MANET

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 A larger class of protocols assumes that nodes communicate over a single

logical wireless channel. These protocols are Carrier Sense Multiple Access

(CSMA)/Collision Avoidance (CA) oriented, where they relay on specific link layer

behaviours. Some MANET routing protocols are based on specific link layer

properties, such as Request To Send (RTS)/Clear To Send (CTS) control sequence

used by popular IEEE 802.11, MAC layers to avoid collisions due to hidden and

exposed terminals. There are few protocols, which are based on physical layer

information such as signal strength, or geographic position into the routing algorithm.

1.4.2. Structure

Routing protocols are categorized as uniform or non uniform protocols

Uniform protocols: In a uniform protocol, none of the nodes take a distinguished role

in routing scheme; each node sends and responds to routing control messages in same

way. No Hierarchical structure is imposed in the network.

Non-uniform protocols: In this type of protocol routing complexity can be limited by

reducing the number of nodes participating in routing computation. Non-uniform

protocols fall into two category

• Protocols in which each node focuses routing activity on a subset of its

neighbours

• Protocol in which the network is topologically partitioned.

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1.4.3. State information

Protocols described in state information may be

• Topology based

• Destination based

Topology based protocol: These protocols are based on link state protocols. Nodes

participating in topology-based protocol maintain large-scale topology information.

Each node makes decisions based on complete topology information.

Destination based protocols: These protocols are Distance Vector protocols, where

each node maintain a distance and vector (next hop) to a destination. Each node

exchanges its distance estimates for all other network nodes with each of its

immediate neighbours. Such algorithms behave poorly leading to routing loops and

slow convergence in a dynamic environment. Other destination-based protocol

maintains distance vector routing information for active destination to which they are

sending and forwarding traffic.

1.4.4. Scheduling

Protocols can be considered in terms when a source obtains routing

information as it initiates traffic flow to destination

• Proactive protocols

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 • On-demand protocols

Proactive protocols: These are table driven, routing protocols, which maintain routing

information for all destination at every source. Fixed network routing protocols are

proactive. In proactive routing protocols, nodes exchange information periodically in

response to topological changes.

The main advantage is to minimize the delay in obtaining a route when

initiating traffic to a destination and quickly determines whether a destination is

reachable. This process can also consume significant network resources.

On-Demand protocols: These are class of reactive protocols where routes are

discovered based on demand. These protocols consist of “route discovery”, and “route

maintenance”.

Route discovery: This process is initiated when a source needs a route to the

destination for which it broadcast a route request. Each intermediate node on

receiving the requests records the link from which it has received and rebroadcasts it.

When the request reaches the destination, a route reply is sent back to the source

through the intermediate nodes. Once the reply reaches the source, data traffic is sent

to the destination. To ensure route request reaches the destination, flooding the

network with route request messages. This may lead to “broadcast storm problem”.

To improve the efficiency of broadcast flooding

• Adding random delay to re-broadcasts reduce collisions

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 • Using sequence we can hop limit the route request.

• Using location or signal strength to determine most productive

rebroadcasters.

Route maintenance: Is a process which deletes failed routes and re-initiates route

discovery in case of topology change. If failure is in the upper layer, route discovery

must be initiated at the source node. If it is a hop by hop failure then passive

acknowledgements are used for route discovery process to repair the broken route.

Some protocols use “hello messages” for route maintenance process.

1.4.5. Properties of ad-hoc networks

If the conventional routing protocols do not meet our demands, we need a new

routing protocol. The question is what properties should such protocols have? The

following are some of the desired properties (Corson M.S, and Macker J, 1999) that

are desirable

Distributed operation: The routing protocol must be distributed in order to increase

reliability. When all nodes are mobile, it is unacceptable to have a centralized routing

protocol. Each node should be intelligent enough to make routing decisions using

other collaborative nodes. A distributed but virtually centralized protocol is a good

idea.

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Loop free: To improve the overall performance, it is necessary that the routing

protocol must guarantee the routes supplied are loop free. This avoids bandwidth

wastage or CPU consumption.

Demand based operation: The routing algorithm should adapt to traffic on demand

for efficient utilization of network energy and bandwidth resources. This means that

the protocol should only react when needed and that the protocol should not

periodically broadcast control information. The obvious drawback in using this

algorithm is increase in delay.

Proactive operation: In some contexts, additional latency incurred due to demand

based operation, may be unacceptable. So, if the bandwidth resources permit,

proactive operation must be used.

Unidirectional link support: The radio environment can cause the formation of

unidirectional links. Instead of depending only on bidirectional links these links also

improves the routing protocol performance.

Security: The radio environment is vulnerable to impersonation attacks. To ensure the

wanted behaviour from the routing protocol, it is necessary to have preventive

security measures. Authentication and encryption is probably the way to go. But

distributing the keys among the nodes in the ad-hoc network becomes an issue. There

are also discussions about using IP-Sec that uses tunnelling to transport all packets.

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Power consumption: The nodes in an ad-hoc network can be laptops and thin clients

such as PDAs that are very limited in battery power and therefore uses some sort of

stand-by mode to save power. It is therefore important that the routing protocol has

support for these sleep-modes.

Multiple routes: Multiple routes could be used to reduce the number of reactions to

topological changes and congestion. If one route has become invalid, it is possible

that another stored route could be still valid and thus saving the routing protocol from

initiating another route discovery procedure.

Quality of service support: Support for quality of service needs to be incorporated

into the routing protocol which will depend on the utilisation of these networks. For

example, it can be an instance of real time traffic support.

None of the proposed protocol from MANET has all these properties, but it is

necessary to remember that the protocols are still under development and will

probably be extended with more functionality.

1.4.6. Research overview and Contributions:

This thesis concentrates on the current on-demand routing protocols based on

different mobility models. On demand routing protocols do not need to keep any entry

for each destination router in the routing table and maintain the information by

periodic updates of the routing table. The overhead of storage and channel utilization

limits the scalability of MANETs where each mobile node is a router. By maintaining

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only the active entries on an on-demand basis one can reduce overhead, thus

improving performance and scalability. There are currently two popular on-demand

routing protocols proposed for use in MANET namely, “Ad-Hoc On-Demand

Routing protocol” and “Dynamic Source Routing protocol”.

This thesis provides the following contributions.

• Support for developing Ad-Hoc routing protocols within a standard network

simulator, NS-2

• An implementation of AODV and DSR protocols in NS-2

• A comprehensive evaluation of these two approaches in terms of a specific set

of performance metrics based on different mobility models.

• Insight into where areas of improvement can be made in the area of mobility

models or routing protocols.

The performance analysis will mainly focus on packet delivery ratio,

normalized routing load, end to end delay for the routing protocols based on different

mobility models. Varying the mobility characteristics widely is expected to have a

significant impact on the performance of the routing protocol. The overall

performance of any wireless protocol depends on the duration of interconnection

between any two nodes transferring data and on the duration of interconnections

between nodes of a data path containing n-nodes. These parameters which are

averaged over entire network are called as “Average Connected Paths”.

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 Figure 1.3 Relationship between protocol performance and mobility model

The mobility of the nodes affects the number of average connected paths

which in turn affect the performance of the routing algorithm as shown in Figure 1.3.

Moreover the applicability and suitability of the routing protocols in urban and

military deployment set up scenario will also be considered. The simulation will take

into consideration the constraints that are experienced by military operations and the

environment.

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