Address aggregation in mobile ad hoc networks

Current mobile ad hoc network (MANET) routing protocols operate with networks as flat address spaces, treating all nodes in the network as independent peers. However, these nodes are not always independent; they can form groups due to physical or environmental restraints. By taking advantage of these natural groupings, there is an opportunity to optimize the performance of MANET routing in these settings. This paper examines address aggregation in MANETs, focusing primarily on its ability to reduce routing overhead. We specifically describe the work necessary to implement address aggregation in the ad hoc on-demand distance vector routing protocol (AODV). We found the benefits of aggregation to be quite significant, reducing overhead and delay by 42% to 82% and 30% to 62%, respectively.