Robust MANET routing using adaptive path redundancy and coding

Providing efficient networking services in MANETs is very challenging in presence of mobility, unpredictable radio channel and interference: a significant number of packets can be corrupted and/or lost. To increase reliability, various measures have been proposed. A popular approach is to use multiple paths and transmit identical copies of the packet on each path (i.e., path redundancy). A more efficient way is to use random Network Coding on top of the multiple paths and send differently coded packets on each path. Network Coding can improve delivery efficiency. But, it also increases delays and network overhead. If channel disruption is intermittent, it behooves us to turn "on and off" path redundancy and Network Coding depending on measured packet loss. In this paper we compare via simulation the performance of multipath routing with and without Network Coding (and with/without dynamic adaptation) for various motion and packet loss scenarios in terms of reliability, efficiency, robustness, and scalability.