WSN16-6: A Fast Distributed and Efficient Virtual Backbone Election in Large Scale MANETs

Virtual backbone based routing is a promising approach for enhancing the routing efficiency in wireless ad hoc networks. To establish communication in the network, the virtual backbone nodes have to be connected. Connected dominating sets (CDS) are the earliest structures proposed as candidates for virtual backbones in ad hoc networks. In this paper, we propose a fast distributed and efficient algorithm to find a connected dominating set (DE-CDS) in wireless ad hoc networks. DE-CDS has a message and time complexity of O(n) and O(Delta2), where n is the number of nodes in the network and Delta is the maximum node degree. According to our knowledge, DE-CDS achieves the best message and time complexity combinations among the previously suggested approaches. Moreover, DE-CDS constructs a reliable virtual backbone that takes into account (1) node's limited energy, (2) node's mobility, and (3) node's traffic pattern.