Routing and QoS in MANETs
Thomas Kunz
Systems and Computer Engineering
Carleton University
http://kunz-pc.sce.carleton.ca/
tkunz@sce.carleton.ca

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Infrastructure-less, may need to traverse multiple wireless links to reach a destination

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Mobility causes route changes

Why Ad Hoc Networks ?
Ease of deployment
Speed of deployment
Decreased dependence on infrastructure

Many Applications
Personal area networking
cell phone, laptop, ear phone, wrist watch
Military environments
soldiers, tanks, planes
Civilian environments
taxi cab network
meeting rooms
sports stadiums
boats, small aircraft
Emergency operations
search-and-rescue
policing and fire fighting

MANET Research Problems
Wireless communication: huge field, but not mine J (I.e.: IEEE 802.11/15/16 standards, CDMA, coding and modulation)
Many open research problems for TCP/IP networks, multiple IETF working groups exploring part of the problem space
Dynamic topology: routing (MANET) and management (ZEROCONF)
Mobility management (in particular when MANET is connected through gateway to fixed Internet): Mobile IP, SEAMOBY
Transport layer: flow control for streaming services: DCCP
Own research interest: routing (energy efficiency, capacity maximizing, multicast routing), QoS support, interlayer design

Routing: Open Problems
Mobile Ad Hoc Network Routing Protocols:
Limited radio transmission range and node mobility
Many Routing Protocols (literally 100s):
On-demand: AODV, DSR
Pro-Active: OLSR
Hybrid: ZRP
Problems:
Most existing performance comparisons based on ideal propagation model (free space model, two-ray ground model)
Our simulation results with shadowing model show severe performance degradation

Propagation Models
Question: does physical layer impact performance of routing protocols and if so, what to do about it?
Ideal Models
Free space model and two-ray ground reflection model
Shadowing Model
b: loss exponent, corresponding to mean transmission range
s:shadowing deviation

Impact on Routing Protocols
Signal strength fluctuates in shadowing model
Ideal model (left) and shadowing model (right) over the same distance between two nodes
Fluctuation at least 2 orders of magnitude

Impact on Routing Protocols
Signal strength fluctuation causes active links to “break”
Simulations of AODV & DSR show that
Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) decreases significantly
Broken links introduce more Route Discovery processes
Cause more control messages and longer packet delay

Simulation Results
Performance Comparisons with different b values

QoS Routing: Find Routes satisfying QoS constraints
Link state metrics should be available and manageable
Link quality changes quickly and continuously due to node movement and surrounding changes
Computational cost and protocol overhead affect the performance of the QoS routing protocol
Protocol performance evaluation is complex

Proactive QoS Routing
Advantages
suitable for the unpredictable nature of Ad-Hoc networks
suitable for the requirement of quick reaction to QoS demands
makes call admission control possible
avoids the waste of network resources
Disadvantages
introduces additional protocol overhead
trade-off between the QoS performance and traditional protocol performance

Description of OLSR
Selects MPR to cover 2-hop neighbors
Exchanges neighbor/MPR information in Hello message
Generates and relays TC message to broadcast topology information
Reduces control overhead by limiting MPR set
In the graph, B selects C as MPR

QoS Versions of OLSR
OLSR protocol does not guarantee to find the best bandwidth route
Three heuristics are proposed to enhance OLSR in bandwidth aspect
The heuristics select good bandwidth neighbor as MPR
Based on evaluation in static network scenarios, heuristic 2 is chosen: best-bandwidth neighbours are selected as MPRs until 2-hop neighbourhood is covered
In the previous network topology, B selects A,F as MPRs

Analysis of Results
Outperforms the original OLSR protocol in bandwidth aspect (i.e., finds better bandwidth routes)
More MPRs are selected; more TC messages are generated and relayed
The additional control messages increase the MANET network load
The overlap of 2-hop neighbors covered by MPRs causes TC collision

Next Steps: Build Wireless MESH with QoS Support (joint project with NCIT and CRC)
Mesh nodes: special hardware based on Intel IXP 425 NPU (ZAP nodes)
Wireless Links: 802.11a/b/g, future support for 802.16a
Software: Routing between ZAP nodes based on OLSR (CRC code)
My research group: QoS support at MAC, routing, and end-to-end layer
Related project (i.e., shared platform) at U of O with Prof. Makrakis

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Slide 19