A link stability model and stable routing for mobile ad-hoc networks

Abstract

When using shortest-distance routing for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs), the physical distances of links that constitute such paths tend to be very long since this leads to fewer hops between source and destination nodes. However, if the physical distance of a wireless link becomes so long that it approaches its transmission range, packet transmission error rates can increase drastically, resulting in an unstable link. Furthermore, packets are more likely to be lost due to external environment factors such as white noise and wireless interference if the signal strength is not strong enough. Therefore, it would be desirable for routing algorithms for MANETs to be able to select paths that are more likely to be stable. With this objective in mind, we propose an enhanced stability model (ESM) to estimate link stability based on signal strength. A routing algorithm based on this new model is also proposed. Simulations of the proposed ESM and previous link estimation models validate the superiority of the proposed approach. Simulations also show that the proposed routing algorithm performs particularly well when there are unreliable links.