Transparent influence of path selection in heterogeneous ad hoc networks

In wireless ad hoc networks, heterogeneity is inherent and each node has different characteristics, resources, and policies. Most current ad hoc routing protocols do not consider node heterogeneity when making routing decisions. Although existing ad hoc routing protocols can be extended to consider heterogeneity, these methods require changes to the routing protocol packets and packet processing. We propose a simple, transparent modification during the route discovery phase of an on-demand routing protocol to select the best route considering heterogeneity. In our solution, nodes can influence their likelihood of participating in routing packets for the other nodes, and there is no noticeable change to the routing protocol. To evaluate our solution, we modify an ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol implementation. Our solution's ability to influence path selection is studied in both a testbed and a network simulator. We show that using the method described in this paper, nodes that want to avoid routing packets for others are avoided when other routes exist.