Adaptive Routing in Dynamic Ad Hoc Networks

Dynamic ad hoc networks are mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) where network characteristics, such as network density and node mobility, change significantly over time and space. Sometimes, dynamic ad hoc networks resemble a dense ad hoc network. At other times, they resemble a delay tolerant network. Many real networks follow the paradigm of dynamic ad hoc networks. Military networks, wildlife tracking sensor networks, and vehicle networks are some of these examples. In dynamic ad hoc networks, conventional routing schemes fail when the network characteristics do not fall into their applicable scenarios. Previous research has proposed a variety of routing schemes for each specific network scenario. For instance, distributed routing tables are built for efficient multi-hop, single- copy routing in static and dense networks. Mobility assisted, multi-copy routings are proposed in sparse networks where contemporary paths might not exist. With the advantages of the existing schemes in mind, we introduce a new routing scheme, Adaptive ROuting in Dynamic ad hoc networks (AROD), which is a seamless integration of several existing schemes. Simulation results show that AROD is highly scalable and is adaptive to different network scenarios.