A dual-hybrid adaptive routing strategy for wireless ad-hoc networks

Recent debate in the research community has focused around the following question: should the design of routing algorithms for ad-hoc networks be predicated upon the minimization of routing overhead, or the optimization of network paths? The answer to this question depends upon the mobility and traffic characteristics present in the network. It is doubtful that any one approach by itself can be optimal, or even sufficient when there are temporal and spatial changes in the network dynamics. Most proposed solutions have adopted a fixed approach. To address this shortcoming we propose a dynamic cluster based routing strategy that shifts the characteristics of its routing approach according to localized network dynamics. This is achieved by dividing routing into intra-cluster and inter-cluster components utilizing a strategy that is hybrid in terms of both its route acquisition and path computation approaches. By adapting the cluster organization to node mobility the strategy senses the network and balances optimality and overhead. The reason for doing this is to achieve the best possible performance subject to a wide range of operating environments.