A modular architecture for hot swappable mobile ad hoc routing algorithms

Routing algorithms for mobile devices equipped with wireless communication capabilities in the field of ubiquitous computing must deal with a highly dynamic environment. No single routing strategy will be capable of handling all possible network situations in a satisfactory manner, since the more optimized the strategy is for a particular situation the less suitable it is for a different scenario. In this paper, we introduce a modular mobile ad hoc routing architecture which features hot-swappable, on-demand loadable routing modules, cross-layer communication facilities und user interaction channels to enable mobile applications to adapt their routing strategy to the current situation on demand. The testbed developed to demonstrate our architecture utilizes the Xen para-virtualization technology to subdivide computer resources to form individual emulated network nodes which may be migrated to other host systems during a live emulation session or interfaced with real-world devices.