Label switched multi-path forwarding in wireless ad-hoc networks

In this paper, we present an architectural view of label switched wireless ad hoc networks, in which each forwarding node is a wireless label switching router. Particularly we propose the wireless ad-hoc label switching (WALS) protocol. The protocol can establish locally disjoint label switched multi-path (LSMP) in ad hoc networks with no requirement for signaling. The 802.11 data frame header is extended to carry label and flow information for multi-path setup and packet forwarding. Data packets are simultaneously forwarded over multiple locally disjoint paths according to the attached label. It is possible that a node receives multiple copies of the same packet from different upstream nodes in multi-path forwarding. The techniques to detect and suppress such duplicates are discussed.