Active route-maintenance protocol for signal-based communication path in ad hoc networks

Ad-hoc wireless networks consist of mobile hosts in a network without of base stations and are characterized by a highly dynamic network topology. The network topology changes frequently due to host migration, signal interference and power outages. This makes routing maintenance challenging for routing protocol design. We present an active route maintenance protocol to prevent the existing route from disconnecting. By monitoring the status of signal strength and the stability of individual hosts, an active node that causes the route to have a weak connection actively issues a route reestablishing process in which the active host selects one of its neighbors as the candidate for partial reconstruction of the weak connection. An enhanced active route maintenance protocol is also proposed to reduce the probability of route breakage and enhance the route efficiency. Performance simulation results show that the proposed route maintenance protocol effectively reduces both the overhead and route maintenance, as well as alleviating the route-break phenomenon.