Statistical Broadcast Protocol Design for Unreliable Channels in Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks

Broadcast is a critical component in ad-hoc wireless networks. This paper examines the effects that channel unreliability have on the performance of broadcasting protocols. We show that the distance method of statistical broadcast performs poorly under adverse channel conditions. We then describe how to design a version of the distance method that is tolerant of transmission errors by adjusting the statistical variable threshold according to the channel conditions. The resulting protocol is then compared with the Double Covered Broadcast (DCB), a topological protocol designed to handle similar circumstances. The modified distance method protocol is shown to give similar reachability characteristics to DCB while using far less transmissions.