Design and demonstration of policy-based management in a multi-hop ad hoc network

In this paper, we propose a policy-based framework for the management of wireless ad hoc networks and briefly describe a characteristics-based taxonomy that provides a platform to analyze and compare different architectural choices. We develop a solution suite that helps achieve our goal of a self-organizing, robust and efficient management system. One of the main contributions of this work is the prototype implementation and testing of the mechanisms and protocols comprising our framework in a multi-hop ad hoc network environment. Experiments are conducted using both an emulated ad hoc network testbed and a true wireless testbed. Degradation in management system performance is observed as the number of hops between a policy server and client increases. Our proposed k-hop clustering algorithm alleviates this problem by limiting the number of hops between a server and client. We demonstrate the operation of our prototype implementation, illustrating QoS management in a multi-domain ad hoc network environment using the proposed cluster management, redirection, and policy negotiation mechanisms.