A Cooperative Location Management Scheme for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a kind of wireless ad hoc network. It is a self-configuring network of mobile routers connected by wireless links. Since MANETs do not have a fixed infrastructure, it is a challenge to design a location management scheme that is both scalable and cost-efficient. In this paper, we propose a cooperative location management scheme, called CooLMS, for MANETs. CooLMS combines the strength of grid based location management and pointer forwarding strategy to achieve high scalability and low signaling cost. An in-depth formal analysis of the location management cost of CooLMS is presented. In particular, the total location management cost of mobile nodes moving at variable velocity is estimated using the Gauss_Markov mobility model for the correlation of mobility velocities. Simulation results show CooLMS performs better than other schemes under certain circumstances.