A distributed IP address assignment scheme for ad hoc networks

In this paper, we present a scheme to assign IP address to each newly-joined node. Some nodes are assigned as coordinators, and are responsible for assigning an IP address to a new node in the network. A new node uses the exchanged hello messages to find the closest coordinator and obtain a new IP address from that coordinator. In order to efficiently maintain the coordinators' IP address pools, the distributed coordinators are organized in a tree topology, called a virtual C-tree, by exchanging hello messages. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme has a low latency for obtaining a new IP address, and that it can efficiently maintain consistent IP address pools.