DAP: Dynamic Address Assignment Protocol in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

In general IP networks, addresses can be assigned to hosts manually by a network administrator or automatically by a DHCP server. Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET), which is a self-configuring network, is the union of mobile hosts that form an arbitrary topology. Most research related to the MANET assumes that host´s IP address is configured, prior to the node joining the MANET. However, it is impossible that a network administrator or DHCP server configures host IP addresses in MANETs because there is no infra-structure. For this reason, a dynamic address management protocol is essential in MANETs. Thus, this paper proposes a novel self-configuring address management protocol, referred to as DAP (distributed address pool), in which IP addresses can be dynamically allocated to a newly-joined host in MANETs with no network infra-structure. In DAP, every host in a MANET has a unique IP address pool (a set of unused addresses that will be used for new joined hosts in MANETs) and address assignments are performed locally in the host. The advantage of this method is that it does not generate any broadcasting messages and, in turn, address allocation time can be significantly reduced. From our simulations, DAP showed a superior performance to a random address allocation scheme (RADA) in terms of both address allocation time and message exchange overhead.