An IPv6 and OLSR based architecture for integrating WLANs and MANETs to the Internet

The paper presents the results from a performance evaluation on a Mobile IPv6 based test-bed composed of WLANs (wireless local area networks), MANETs (mobile ad-hoc networks) and the Internet. Location management and handoff efficiency is measured in terms of session setup delay and handoff delay. The mobiles, connected as a MANET, employ the OLSR (optimized link state routing) protocol for routing within the MANET. Location management across WLANs and MANETs is achieved through Mobile IPv6. The impact of OLSR based route discovery and packet propagation, and IPv6 features, such as neighbor discovery and address auto-configuration, on the session set-up latency, handoff latency and packet loss are quantified. Two main contributions are reported. First, a novel approach is proposed to integrate MANETs into the Internet using Mobile IPv6 and OLSR. Secondly, various performance benchmarks and metrics are presented that are obtained using the test-bed developed jointly by CRC, Ottawa, and NewMIC, Vancouver. These benchmarks are essential for assessing the impact of the system features.