Ad Hoc Wireless Network

Introduction
• Ad hoc comes from the Latin words meaning "for this.“-made
or done suddenly for a particular purpose.
• Ad Hoc Network is a multi-hop relaying network
•  hop count refers to the number of network devices through
which data passes from source to destination

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History
• Around 500 B.C, messages were communicated to distance place by line of shouting men
positioned on tall structures
• In 1970 Norman Abramson and research group at university of Hawaii invented ALOHA
net
• ALOHA net uses single hop wireless packet switching for sharing single channel
• Ethernet and PRNET(packet radio network)developed in 1980
• PRNET uses ALOHA and CSMA
• Aimed for infrastructure less networks applicable for civilian and military purpose
• During 1980 ‘s IETF working group termed MANET(mobile Ad hoc networks) was formed
to standardize the protocols and functional specifications of ad hoc wireless networks
• In 1994, Bluetooth proposed by Ericsson to develop a short-range, low-power, low-
complexity, and inexpensive radio interface
• WLAN 802.11 spec. is proposed in 1997

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Hybrid networks:
Ad hoc wireless networks are expected to work without infrastructure
But recent advances in wireless network enables ad hoc nodes to work in
presence of infrastructure

Eg.
Multihop cellular networks (MCN)
Self organizing packet radion ad hoc networks with overlay (SOPRANO)

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Cellular and Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

• Cellular Wireless Networks: infrastructure

dependent network
• Ad Hoc Networks: multi-hop radio relaying and
without support of infrastructure
– Wireless Mesh Networks
– Wireless Sensor Networks

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 Wireless Mesh
Networks

Cellular Wireless Networks Hybrid Wireless

Networks
Wireless Sensor
Networks

Infrastructure Dependent Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

(Single-Hop Wireless Networks) (Multi-Hop Wireless Networks)

Figure 1: Cellular and ad hoc wireless networks.

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 B
A

E D

Switching Center
+
Gateway

Base Station Mobile Node Path from C to E

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Figure 2: A cellular network.
 B
A

C
F

E D

Mobile Node Wireless Link Path from C to E

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Figure 3. An ad hoc wireless network.
Adhoc wireless networks:
-wireless networks utilizing multihop relays without any
fixed infrastructure
-absence of base station makes the routing complex
-cell boundaries are not important
Eg: wireless mesh networks , wireless sensor networks
- Nodes should be intelligent, it should be network host
for transmitting and receiving data also network router
for routing packets
- Mobile nodes in ad hoc wireless networks are complex

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 Differences between cellular networks and ad hoc
wireless networks
Cellular Networks Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

Fixed infrastructure-based Infrastructure-less

Single-hop wireless links Multi-hop wireless links

Guaranteed bandwidth Shared radio channel

(more suitable for best-effort data traffic)
(designed for voice traffic)

Centralized routing Distributed routing

Circuit-switched Packet-switched
(evolving toward packet switching) (evolving toward emulation of circuit
switching)
Seamless connectivity Frequency path break
(low call drops during handoffs)
due to mobility
High cost and time of deployment Quick and cost-effective deployment

Reuse of frequency spectrum through Dynamic frequency reuse based on carrier

geographical channel reuse sense mechanism
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 Differences between cellular networks and ad hoc
wireless networks (cont.)
Easier to achieve time synchronization
Easier to employ bandwidth reservation
Application domains include mainly civilian
and commercial sector
High cost of network maintenance
(backup power source, staffing, etc.)
Mobile hosts are of relatively low complexity
Major goals of routing and call admission are
to maximize the call acceptance ratio and
minimize the call drop ratio
Widely deployed and currently in the third
generation
Time synchronization is difficult and
consumes bandwidth
Bandwidth reservation requires complex
medium access control protocols
Application domains include battlefields,
emergency search and rescue operation, and
collaborative computing
Self-organization and maintenance properties
are built into the network
Mobile hosts require more intelligence
(should have a transceiver as well as
routing/switching capacity)
Man aim of routing is to find paths with
minimum overhead and also quick
reconfiguration of broken paths
Several issues are to be addressed for
successful commercial deployment even
though widespread use exists in defense
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 Applications of Ad Hoc Wireless Networks
a) Military Applications
i)Establishing communication among a group of soldiers for tactical
operations
– Setting up fixed infrastructure for soldiers in enemy territories or
inhospitable terrains may not be possible
ii)Coordination of military objects moving at high speeds such
as fleets of airplanes or ships
-ad hoc provides quick and reliable communication
• Nodes in military applications should have multiple high
power transceivers, long life batteries
Requirements on adhoc wireless networks : reliability, efficiency,
secure communication, and multicasting routing
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b) Collaborative and Distributed Computing
Eg: research groups to share material during conference, distribute
notes to the class
-distributed file sharing does not require much security but reliability
is required
-requires economical and portable devices usually powered by battery
sources.
Eg: laptops with add-on wireless interface cards, PDA, mobile devices
with high processing power
c) Emergency Operations
– Search, rescue, crowd control, and commando operations
- Ad hoc is suitable because of the
 self configuration capability with minimal overhead
 Infrastructure may be destroyed due to natural calamities
– Support real-time and fault-tolerant communication paths1
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d) Wireless Mesh Networks
• An alternate communication infrastructure for
mobile or fixed nodes/users without spectrum
reuse constraints and network planning
requirements
• Provides many alternate paths for a data
transfer session between a source and
destination

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 Wired Network

Gateway node

Transmission range
A house with rooftop transceiver Wired link to the Internet
Wireless link

Figure 4. Wireless mesh networks operating in a residential

zone
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Internet

Radio relay node

Multi-hop radio relay link Lamp

Wired link to the Internet Coverage area

Figure 5 Wireless mesh network covering a highway

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Wireless mesh deployment scenarios:
 Residential areas(where broadband internet connectivity is required)
 Highways(mobile vehicular communication)
 Business zone(alternate system to cellular networks)
 Important civilian regions (where high degree of service availability is
required)
 University campuses (campus wide network coverage)

Wireless mesh networks operate at license free ISM 2.4 GHz and 5GHz
Data rate – 2 to 60 Mbps be supported
Eg. IEEE 802.11a supports 54Mbps

Smart environment service-updates info about the environment

In cellular networks- increase in nodes, increases cost.
- fixed based station covering large area involves the
risk of single point of failure
• Advantages of Wireless Mesh Networks
– High data rate, quick and low cost of deployment, enhanced services,
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high scalability, easy extendability, high availability, and low cost7per bit
 e)Wireless Sensor Networks
• A collection of a large number of sensor nodes that are deployed in a
particular region
• Sensors are tiny devices capable of sensing data, which then may be
processed and sent to monitoring station
• Sensor networks –large no. of sensor nodes deployed in a particular region
• Sensing can be periodic or sporadic
• Periodic sensing eg: temperature , humidity measurements
• Sporadic sensing eg: detecting border intrusion, sensing temperature of
furnace.
• Applications:
– military, health care, home security, and environmental
monitoring

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wireless sensor networks in comparison with typical ad hoc networks:
 Mobility of nodes-fixed, partial or limited mobility
 size of network- large no. of nodes required
 density of deployment- depends on application
 power constraints-very stringent, because sensor nodes will be operated
in harsh environmental or geographical conditions
Frequent recharging of power is difficult
Power sources can be divided into
o Replenishable power source –replacing power source when existing is
fully drained off eg: wearable sensors
o Non Replenishable power source-replacement of sensor node itself eg:
deployment of sensors in hazardous terrain
o Regenerative power source- regenerate power using transducers

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 data/information fusion
Data fusion refers to aggregation of multiple packets into
one before relaying it to reduce bandwidth
 traffic distribution
-Depends on application
-eg: environmental sensing generates short periodic
packets and demands low bandwidth whereas in typical
ad hoc wireless networks higher bandwidth is required

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f) Hybrid Wireless Networks
• HWN such as Multi-hop Cellular Networks (MCN)and
integrated cellular ad hoc relay networks (iCAR)
– The base station maintains the information about the
topology of the network for efficient routing
– The capacity of a cellular network can be increased if the network
incorporates the properties of multi-hop relaying along with the
support of existing fixed infrastructure
– MCN combine reliability and support of fixed base station with
flexibility and multi hop relaying of ad hoc wireless networks

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 B
A

E Switching Center
+
Gateway

Base Station Mobile Node MCN communication

Figure 5.6. MCN architecture.

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• Advantages of hybrid networks:
– Higher capacity than cellular networks due to better
channel reuse provided by reduction of transmission
power
– Increased flexibility and reliability in routing
flexibility -selecting best nodes for routing
reliability – incase of failure base station , nodes reach
other nodes by multi-hop paths
– Better coverage and connectivity in holes

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Issues in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks
1. Medium access scheme 7.Self-organization
2. Routing 8. Security
3. Multicasting 9. Energy management
4. TCP 10. Addressing and service
discovery
5. Pricing scheme 11. Scalability
6. QoS 12. Deployment considerations

affects the design, deployment and performance of ad hoc networks

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Open systems Interconnection(OSI) reference model

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 1.Medium Access Scheme
issues in designing MAC protocols for ad hoc wireless networks
• Distributed operation
– No centralized coordination is possible. fully distributed involving
minimum control overhead
• Synchronization
- requires time synchronization
– Mandatory for TDMA-based systems
• Hidden terminals
- terminals hidden (not reachable) from transmitter but
reachable by receiver
- may cause collisions at receiver node
– Can significantly reduce the throughput of a MAC protocol

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• Exposed terminals
- nodes in the transmission range of the sender of on
ongoing session but prevented from making transmission
– To improve the efficiency of the MAC protocol, the exposed nodes
should be allowed to transmit in a controlled fashion without
causing collision to the on-going data transfer
• Access delay
- average delay that a packet experience.
- MAC protocol should minimize it
• Throughput
- defined as the amount of data successfully transferred from
one place to other
– minimize the occurrence of collision, maximize channel utilization,
and minimize control overhead to maximize throughput 2
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• Fairness
– Equal share or weighted share of the bandwidth to all competing nodes
– Can be either node based or flow based
node based- equal bandwidth for all competing nodes
flow based- equal bandwidth for all competing data transfer sessions
- Unfairness relaying load may drain faster than other nodes
• Real-time traffic support
-Mac protocol should support limited bandwidth, time
synchronization and no central coordination for real time traffic with
voice, video and data
• Resource reservation
– Such as BW, buffer space, and processing power

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• Capability for power control
-control in power transmission reduces energy consumption in nodes,
decrease interference with neighboring nodes and increase frequency reuse
• Adaptive rate control
-Mac protocol having adaptive data rate have high data rate when
transmitter and receiver are nearby otherwise lower data rate
• Use of directional antennas
-increases spectrum reuse, reduction in interference, reduced power
consumption
- Mostly omni directional antennas are used

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2.Major Challenges of Routing Protocol
• Mobility result in frequent path break, packet
collision, and difficulty in resource reservation
• Bandwidth constraint: BW is shared by every
node
• Error-prone and share channel: high bit error
rate
• Location-dependent contention: distributing the
network load uniformly across the network
• Other resource constraint: computing power, battery
power, and buffer storage

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Major Requirement of Routing Protocol
• Minimum route acquisition delay
• Quick route reconfiguration: to handle path breaks
• Loop-free routing
• Distributed routing approach
• Minimum control overhead
• Scalability
• Provisioning of QoS:
- QoS paramters are bandwidth, jitter,packet
delivery ratio, throughput
- supporting differentiated classes of services
• Support for time-sensitive traffic
• Security and privacy
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3.Major Issues in Multicast Routing Protocols

• Robustness
– recover and reconfigure quickly from link breaks
• Efficiency
– minimum number of transmissions to deliver a data packet
to all the group members
• Minimal Control overhead
• QoS support
• Efficient group management
• Scalability
• Security
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 4.Transport Layer Protocols

• Objectives: setting up and maintaining

– End-to-end connections, reliable end-to-end data delivery, flow control, and
congestion control
• Major performance degradation in Transmission control protocol(TCP):
– Frequent path breaks, presence of old routing information, high channel
error rate, and frequent network partitions
5. Pricing scheme
eg: optimal route from node A to transmit to node B via node C which is in off
condition has to setup a costlier route to B
Pricing scheme not required for military applications but for commercial use ad
hoc networks require pricing and billing

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6. Quality of Service Provisioning
• QoS is the performance level of service offered by service
provider to user.
• QoS often requires negotiation between the host and the
network, resource reservation schemes, priority scheduling
and call admission control
• QoS in Ad hoc wireless networks can be on a per flow,
per link, or per node
• Qos Parameters: different applications have different
requirements
– Multimedia: bandwidth and delay are the key parameters
– Military: BW, delay, security and reliability
– Emergency search –and-rescue: availability is the key
parameters, multiple link disjoint paths 34

– WSN: battery life, minimum energy consumption

• QoS-aware routing:
– use QoS parameters for finding a path
– The parameters are network through put, packet delivery ratio,
reliability, delay, delay jitter, packet lost rate, bit error rate, and
path loss
• QoS framework:
– A frame work for QoS is a complete system that attempts to
provide the promised service
– key components i) QoS service model which defines the way
user requirements are served ii) QoS routing
– The QoS modules such as routing protocol, signaling
protocol, and resource management should react
promptly according to changes in the network state
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 7. Self-Organization
• An important property that an ad hoc wireless network should
exhibit is organizing and maintaining the network by itself
• Major activities:
i)neighbor discovery-transmission of short packets named
beacons or promiscuous snooping on channel to detect
activity of neighbors
ii)topology organization and iii) topology reorganization
Reorganization consists of major 2 activities
1. Periodic or aperiodic exchange of topological information
2. adaptability
• Ad hoc wireless networks should be able to perform self-
organization quickly and efficiently
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 8.Security
• The attack against ad hoc wireless networks are
classified into two types: passive and active attacks
• Passive attack: malicious nodes to observe the
nature of activities and to obtain information in the
network without disrupting the operation
• Active attack: disrupt the operation of the network
– Internal attack: nodes belong to the same network.
Nodes performing internal attacks are called
compromised nodes.
– External attack: nodes outside the network

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Major security threats in adhoc wireless networks
1. Denial of service
2. resource consumption
3. Host impersonation
4. Information disclosure
5. Interference

9. Addressing and service discovery

- very significant due to absence of central coordinator
10. Energy Management
3 categories
-Transmission power management
-Battery energy management
-processor power management
-devices power management
11. Scalability- hybrid architectures improve scalability
12. Deployment considerations
-low cost of deployment
-Incremental deployment
- Short deployment time
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- Reconfigurability 8
 References
 “Ad Hoc Wireless Networks Architectures and Protocols” By Shiva Ram Murthi.