Routing in mobile ad-hoc wireless networks

This thesis describes routing in mobile ad hoc wireless networks. Ad hoc networks are lack of wired backbone to maintain routes as mobile hosts move and power is on or off. Therefore, the hosts in ad hoc networks must cooperate with each other to determine routes in a distributed manner. Routing based on a connected dominating set is a frequently used approach, where the searching space for a route is reduced to nodes in small connected dominating set subnetwork. We propose a simple and efficient distributed algorithm for calculating connected dominating set in a given un-directed ad hoc network, then evaluate the proposed algorithm through simulation. We also discuss connected dominating set update/recalculation algorithms when the topology of the ad hoc network changes. We also explore the possible extension of using hierarchical connected dominating set. The shortest path routing and the dynamic source routing, which are based on the connected dominating set subnetwork, are discussed.