A model for evaluating multi-route routing in ad hoc networks

An ad hoc network is a collection of wireless mobile hosts forming a temporary network without the aid of any centralized administration. In the absence of a centralized administration node, routing is a challenging issue. We focus on a particular source initiated on-demand protocol, called dynamic source routing (DSR), and show how use of multipath techniques can reduce the frequency of route discovery. The frequency of route discovery in DSR is one of the main performance metrics in mobile ad hoc networks. This performance metric was studied using an exponential model, which might be an appropriate model for voice traffic, but is not a suitable model for data traffic. Studies have shown that data traffic is more precisely characterized by heavy-tailed distributions. We present an approach to characterize data traffic through the compound log-normal distribution. Reliability archetypes of series and parallel connections have been used in developing these models.