CEHR: Core enabled hybrid routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks

Generally, the routing protocols for mobile md hoc networks (MANETs) employ a proactive or reactive (on-demand) routing strategy to facilitate multi-hop routes between different nodes. But, MANETs are ideal for such a wide range of applications that a single routing protocol is not well suited for all network conditions. Hybrid routing protocols can address this problem by benefiting from both routing strategies. In this article, a hybrid routing protocol CEHR is proposed. CEHR employs only a fraction of nodes (core nodes) to generate proactive topology broadcasts, while assuring the representation of all nodes in these messages. As a result, less topology messages are generated. Moreover, CEHR benefits from the multipoint relay (MPR) optimizations and smaller propagation regions (proactive routing zones) to minimize retransmissions of broadcast messages. In this way, significant topology information is learnt for a small amount of control traffic. The routes not learnt through proactive topology broadcasts (destinations outside the proactive zones) can be searched on-demand. Simulation results indicate that the proposed protocol performs well under different mobility and traffic patterns.