Performance Improvement of a Grid-Based Location Service in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper we present NGRID, a new location service scheme that employs a multilevel hierarchical location server structure to enhance scalability. We first explain HGRID (hierarchical grid location management) with details, since our scheme is based on this method. NGRID attempts to increase scalability and reduce routing overhead when size and density of network is increased and number of home regions is fixed. Design options can affect the scalability of the location service and consequently affect the whole scalability of the geographical routing method. Results show that our protocol performs better in network throughput and end-to-end packet delay with increasing network size or average node speed. Furthermore, in our simulation experiments, NGRID demonstrates superior scalability, especially when a localized data traffic pattern is assumed. Our scheme scales well for large scale mobile ad hoc networks.