Innovative route maintenance based on link failure prediction for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs), node mobility results in frequent topology changes. This makes it difficult for routing protocols to cope with the change timely. As nodes move arbitrarily and unpredictably, maintaining routing in such environment is a serious challenge. This paper presents a mechanism that targets the node mobility in a near future scenario and takes action to maintain the active route between sources and destination prior to the route breakage. It utilizes the information provided by neighbor nodes, who are overhearing the communication of an active route, to build alternative links. When a link on an active route is about to be broken soon, the proposed mechanism uses the alternative ones, that are contiguous to the active route, to forward the data. The performance evaluation showed that the proposed mechanism outperforms the common on-demand routing protocols in terms of packet delivery rate and control packet overhead.