A new approach for integrating proactive and reactive routing in MANETs

We propose a new approach to integrate proactive and reactive routing in mobile ad hoc networks. Our work deploys a lightweight proactive algorithm that runs in the background offering a basic routing service, and a reactive algorithm that can be called on demand offering a connection-oriented service. The reactive algorithm uses the routing information from the proactive algorithm in its working, so that there is a synergy between the two parts of the system. An important property of our system is that it allows the choice between proactive and reactive routing to be made for each session individually, by their source nodes. This gives network nodes a very fine-grained level of control over the routing process, and allows them to exploit the complementary properties of proactive and reactive routing, e.g. by matching the choice of the routing approach to the needs of individual sessions. In a range of simulation tests, we evaluate the validity of our approach.