Efficient broadcasting using packet history in mobile ad hoc networks

Broadcasting is a key component of several networking mechanisms in mobile ad hoc networks. However, its traditional implementation suffers from resource consumption caused by message redundancy. Several efficient algorithms have been proposed to tackle this problem. Among them, the class of algorithms that construct on-demand a connected dominating set, known as dominant pruning, yields an improved performance. Dominant pruning algorithms capitalise on neighbourhood information and the previous hop of the broadcast message in order to minimise the set of nodes that forward a message. The proposed algorithm makes the observation that all the nodes, visited by a broadcast message, may be exploited in order to minimise the cost of broadcasting. The analysis of the proposed algorithm as well as extensive simulation results confirm the rationale behind the proposed approach and prove the performance gains.