How to avoid packet droppers with proactive routing protocols for ad hoc networks

Routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) have been an active area of research for the last decade, with many very interesting potential as well as actual applications, in the military, rescue and commercial fields. Currently emerging standard routing protocols for MANETs do not perform well in the presence of nodes that intentionally drop data traffic but otherwise behave correctly with respect to control messages. In this paper, we address the problem of coping with the presence of such nodes in networks that use a proactive routing protocol. The solution, based on the principle of flow conservation, is purely protocolar and does not rely on any specific underlying OSI layer 1 or 2 technology. In addition, it is well suited for integration into existing proactive routing protocols for ad hoc networks, since it can use existing control messages and does not require any synchronization between the nodes. The method, once implemented in an actual routing protocol, proves to increase the ratio of successfully delivered data packets significantly. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.