Ad hoc MPLS for virtual-connection-oriented mobile ad hoc networks

During the past few years, IP with multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) over WDM has emerged as the paradigm of choice for the future optical Internet. However, MPLS is complex and does not take into account mobility in wireless networks, so the current version of MPLS cannot be applied to wireless networks to establish connections in an end-to-end manner. We propose ad hoc MPLS, a light-weight version of MPLS with an ad hoc LSP (label switched path) extension for the realization of end-to-end virtual-connection-oriented ad hoc networks, which in turn enables end-to-end QoS provisioning, traffic engineering and protection/restoration.