Route Stability in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a wireless network consisting of mobile nodes, which can communicate with each other without any infrastructure support. In these networks, nodes typically cooperate with each other, by forwarding packets for nodes which are not in the communication range of the source node. A fundamental issue arising in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) is the selection of the optimal path between any two nodes. A method that has been advocated to improve routing efficiency is to select the most stable path so as to reduce the latency and the overhead due to route reconstruction. In this work we study the stability of a routing path, which is subject to link failures caused by node mobility, and we consider as metrics of interest the duration and the availability of a path. Moreover, using the results on path duration and availability, we show how to determine the optimal path in terms of route stability, under the Random Direction mobility models.