Efficient message scheduling in ad hoc networks

The field of ad hoc networks is currently receiving a lot of attention due to its immense potential in diverse applications. Most of the research in this area is focused on designing efficient routing protocols. As per our knowledge, the issue of QoS improvement in ad hoc networks is yet to be addressed. We examine the use of packet scheduling at the network level so as to improve the network QoS. We present two scheduling strategies that schedule packets based on the length of the message to which they belong. Simulations conducted on ns, the network simulator from the University of California at Berkeley, indicate that substantial improvement in terms of end-to-end message delay can be obtained without adversely affecting the network message throughput