A position-based multi-zone routing protocol for wide area mobile ad-hoc networks

We propose a proactive, position-based routing protocol that provides an alternative, simplified way of localizing routing information overhead, without having to resort to complex, multiple-tier hierarchical routing organization schemes. This is achieved by integrating the functions of routing and mobility management via the use of geographic position, and the generalization of the routing zone concept. The proposed protocol controls routing overhead generation and propagation by making the overhead generation rate and propagation distance directly proportional to the amount of change in a node's geographic position. In our protocol, a set of geographic routing zones is defined for each node, where the purpose of the ith routing zone is to contain propagation of position updates advertising position differentials equal to the radius of the (i-l)th routing zone. Finally, we show through simulation that the proposed routing protocol is a bandwidth-efficient routing mechanism that can be applied across large scale networks.