dRmin – Routing – A Decentralized Algorithm for Reliability-constrained Routing in Wireless Ad-hoc Networks

In this paper, we propose a decentralized algorithm for the discovery and operation of reliability-constrained routes in wireless ad-hoc networks called dR
min
-routing. The algorithm uses locally available network status information about network topology and link properties that is collected proactively in order to discover a preliminary route candidate. This is followed by a distributed, reactive search along this preselected route to remove imprecisions of the locally recorded network status before making a final route selection. During route operation, dRmin-routing monitors routes and performs different kinds of route repair actions to maintain route reliability in order to overcome varying link reliabilities. We have implemented dR
min
- routing and assess its performance in simulation experiments. A simulative comparison with Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) shows that route reliability in wireless networks should receive more attention.