A distributed routing algorithm for mobile radio networks

The authors present a distributed routing protocol intended for use in networks where the rate of topological change is not so fast as to make `flooding´ the only possible routing method but not so slow as to make one of the existing protocols for a static topology applicable. The routing algorithm adapts asynchronously in a distributed fashion to arbitrary changes in topology in the absence of global topological knowledge. The protocol maintains a set of loop-free routes to each destination from any node that desires a route. The protocol´s performance, measured in terms of end-to-end packet delay and throughput, is compared with that of pure flooding and an alternative algorithm that is well suited to the medium-rate topological change environment envisioned here. The results show that, when the rate of topological change becomes very high, flooding is preferable to the other alternatives. For lower rate of change, it appears that, when the effects of channel access are accounted for, the performance of the new algorithm is encouraging in that it has been generally superior to that of the alternative protocols