Information distribution for network management in a multi-hop mobile packet-radio network

The authors present an efficient update procedure for stations in a multihop S-ALOHA packet radio network. Implicit acknowledgements (ACK/NAK) will be provided for point-to-point and broadcast communications. The simulation results show the mean delay of packets to stations in a 1-, 2- or 3-hop environment. The results indicate the admissible ratio of the generation probability q (packets/slot) to the transmission probability p (packets/slot) of own and relay packets, respectively. Furthermore, the frequency of topological changes and the mean distance from a station, having gained/lost contact to some neighboring station, to other stations needing update of their local data base are investigated through simulation. It is concluded that, due to the quite local influence of topological changes on multihop routes, a completely decentral routing of packets should work well. Further, a novel asynchronous algorithm to update the routing tables of stations is defined and evaluated, which has a considerably small demand on channel capacity