MOSS: Gathering Names in Networks of Mobile Nodes

Nodes in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) act as routers by exchanging routing information to determine initial routes and to update those routes to account for node movement and failure. This ability of MANETs to self-form and self-heal makes them ideal for scenarios that require rapid deployment in areas with limited network infrastructure. However, their dynamic nature makes it challenging to implement naming and location services, as well as other services that traditionally require a fixed infrastructure. A naming service is highly desirable in networks, especially in dynamic networks like MANETs, since it allows accessing network resources by fixed names instead of volatile addresses. This paper presents multicast onomastic search (MOSS), which is a technique for implementing a distributed DNS server in a MANET using multicast addresses. Upon entering a network, a MOSS-enabled node joins a multicast group responsible for resolving the node´s name. The node can then respond to DNS queries for its name. MOSS allows a set of nodes in a MANET to provide a naming service that is resilient to node movement and reconfiguration. It also guarantees that, once routes have stabilized sufficiently, it is always possible to resolve the name of a node provided only that the node itself is reachable.