Efficient content routing in MANETs using distances to directories

The content routing protocols for MANETs proposed to date require the flooding of content requests or link-state advertisements. The Adaptive Publish-subscribe Distance Vector (APDV) protocol is presented as an alternative. APDV combines routing to well-known directories using distance-vector signaling with publish-subscribe mechanisms to discover content. Named data objects (NDO) are published with directories, and consumers of content obtain routes to NDOs from those directories. Each node is covered dynamically by a minimum number of directories within a few hops. APDV is shown to be loop-free at every instant, to provide correct routes within a finite time, and to have a small route stretch. APDV is compared with representative protocols for routing to NDOs using link-state information and on-demand routing; the results show that APDV incurs orders of magnitude less control overhead in large wireless networks.