M-Backs: Mobile backbones for multi-hop wireless networks

We present a new distributed protocol for setting up and maintaining a backbone for multi-hop mobile networks. Our solution, termed M-Backs, is effective in producing backbones with limited size, while being robust and reliable in the face of node mobility. We compare our protocol with previous solutions for mobile backbone set up and maintenance. M-Backs outperforms previous protocols, providing backbones of reasonable size, with superior connectivity, shorter route lengths, higher robustness and lower maintenance-related overhead. When running AODV over the backbones M-Backs obtains higher packet delivery ratio and lower latency than previous backbone protocols and than AODV run over the flat network topology.