Connectivity improvement for inter-domain routing in MANETs

Inter-domain routing for MANETs (Mobile Ad Hoc Networks) draws increasing attention because of military and vehicular applications. Most of the proposed inter-domain routing protocols are using clustering to manage the connection between intra-domain nodes and inter-domain nodes. The distributed clustering algorithm elects within each domain gateways that connect to different domains. Also many inter-domain routing protocols assume that all nodes are equipped with GPS devices, which is common for nodes operating in military and vehicular environments. The geographical information can be used to assist the routing protocol. In this paper, we propose I-GIDR (improved geographical inter-domain routing protocol) which has several techniques to improve geo-based inter-domain routing protocol for MANETs. One key innovation is a new proposed gateway election algorithm that accounts for neighbor's number and distribution to select a gateway that can adapt to multiple domain scenarios. Another key innovation of this paper is neighbor priority, a concept based on the geographical distribution and density of neighbors. Using neighbor priority, we can optimize the geo-based routing protocol, and reduce control overhead. Simulation experiments show significant improvements in connectivity, Packet Delivery Ratio and Control Overhead.