Framework for Integration of IEEE 802.21 MIH Function with Ad Hoc Routing Protocol

We propose a framework for the integration of IEEE 802.21 MIH function with an ad-hoc routing protocol to improve the performances of the ad-hoc routing protocol. In the proposed framework, MIH functions were enabled for the OLSR routing protocol: MIH events were defined and triggered for OLSR, and the OLSR operations responsive to the MIH events were implemented. We analyzed OLSR routing convergence during handover on two ad-hoc network scenarios which can manifest the typical routing behaviors of OLSR. Based on the analysis, we proposed two approaches to improve route convergence of OLSR through MIH. To capture the effects of the proposed framework, we evaluated the performances of OLSR with and without MIH through simulation and compared their performances in terms of packet drop during handover and routing control overhead. The results of the simulations showed that the performance of OLSR was significantly improved through the MIH function.