Intra-team multi-hop broadcasting (ITMB): a MAC layer protocol for efficient control signaling in wireless ad-hoc networks

In a wireless ad-hoc network environment, it is important for a mobile host to be able to broadcast control information within a team of nodes in a bandwidth-efficient and timely manner. Although the classical flooding strategy is the only reliable broadcast method for high rates of topology change, it leads to unnecessary bandwidth consumption for low rates of topology change. In this paper we propose two efficient, low complexity, loop-free broadcast routing protocols which outperform flooding in terms of bandwidth consumption in cases of low mobility and are quite robust under moderate mobility scenarios. Comparative results are obtained in environments with unpredictable link failures or lack of global topology knowledge due to node mobility.