Mobile ad hoc backbones for multi-radio networks

We present a new distributed protocol for setting up and maintaining a backbone for multi-hop mobile networks with multiple radio interfaces. Our solution, termed MM-Backs, is effective in producing backbones with limited size, while being robust and reliable in the face of node mobility. We also describe how MM-Backs can be used to transparently support ad hoc routing, without the need to modify a routing protocol to adapt to multiple radios. We compare our protocol with a solution for mobile backbones running in single-radio networks. MM-Backs provides backbones of reasonable size, with superior connectivity, shorter route lengths, higher resilience and lower maintenance-related overhead. When running AODV over MM-Backs backbones we observe a remarkably higher packet delivery ratio and lower overhead than when running AODV over singleradio backbones or by itself.