ANARCH: a name resolution scheme for mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are temporarily constructed by mobile hosts in the absence of established infrastructures. Such networks can constitute a base for human cooperative works as well as for communications between information systems. However, there has not been sufficient work of name resolution scheme suitable for MANETs after assignment of IP addresses. In this paper, we propose a name resolution system called Autonomous Name Resolution Scheme (ANARCH). ANARCH provides a node with a unique user-oriented name and relieves users and their applications from the necessity of identifying the network addresses (i.e., IP addresses) of destination nodes. ANARCH exchanges control messages merely between nodes in the one-hop reach area. However, it resolves names beyond the one-hop reach area, namely, it adapts to a multi-hop function of MANETs. We have designed and implemented ANARCH on FreeBSD, and evaluated the performance in a MANET system built with PCs running the Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol. In our experimental results, ANARCH exhibited effective name resolution in a practical time while resolving conflicting names.