Sensor-free route stability metric for mobile ad hoc networks

The hop count routing metric is widely used in conventional ad hoc routing protocols due to its simplicity and effectiveness. With a lower hop count route, fewer transmissions are required to send a packet from the source to the destination. This can improve the network throughput because fewer transmissions results in less channel contention and interference. In spite of this, the hop count routing metric may not be ideal for mobile scenarios, where the network topology changes constantly and rapidly. Many routing metrics have been proposed to improve route stability. However, they are usually only marginally effective or incur additional cost by requiring the use of information from additional hardware such as GPS sensor and compass. In this paper we propose a routing metric to guide nodes discover/select stable paths to improve route stability. We implemented the proposed routing metric in the AODV routing protocol and proved through simulation studies that it outperforms other routing metrics.