Mobility Prediction and Routing in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

William Sua
wsu@ewingstech.com
Sung-Ju Leeb
sjlee@cs.ucla.edu
Mario Gerlab
gerla@cs.ucla.edu

aeWings Technologies, Plano, TX
bComputer Science Department, University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

Wireless networks allow a more flexible model of communication than traditional networks since the user is not limited to a fixed physical location. Unlike cellular wireless networks, an ad hoc wireless network does not have any fixed communication infrastructure. For an active connection, the end host as well the intermediate nodes can be mobile. Therefore routes are subject to frequent disconnections. In such an environment, it is important to minimize disruptions caused by the changing topology for critical application such as voice and video. This presents a difficult challenge for routing protocols, since rapid reconstruction of routes is crucial in the presence of topology changes. By exploiting non-random behaviors for the mobility patterns that mobile users exhibit, we can predict the future state of network topology and perform route reconstruction proactively in a timely manner. Moreover, by using the predicted information on the network topology, we can eliminate transmissions of control packets otherwise needed to reconstruct the route and thus reduce overhead. In this paper, we proposed various schemes to improve routing protocol performances by using mobility prediction. We then evaluate the effectiveness of using mobility prediction via simulation.

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