Analysis of a Randomized Congestion Control Scheme with DSDV Routing in ad Hoc Wireless Networks

Ad hoc wireless networks are expected to play an increasingly important role in future civilian and military settings where wireless access to a wired backbone is either ineffective or impossible. However, frequent topology changes caused by node mobility make routing in ad hoc wireless networks a challenging problem. In addition, limited capabilities of mobiles require a control on node congestion due to message forwarding. In this paper, we present a randomized version, called R-DSDV, of the known destination-sequenced distance vector (DSDV) routing protocol for ad hoc networks and analyze its capabilities for distributed congestion control. The analysis is based on a novel approach that uses Markov chains for representing the distribution of routing information over the network. Our results indicate that a probabilistic congestion control scheme based on local tuning of protocol parameters is feasible and that such a mechanism can be effective in reducing the amount of traffic routed through a node which is temporarily congested. The traffic reduction is almost linear with respect to the decrease in the R-DSDV routing table advertisement rate of the congested node. On an average, the convergence time is relatively small as compared to the transmission rates of protocol messages.