WARAAN: a higher-order adaptive routing algorithm for wireless multimedia in wandering networks

The wandering network (WN) (see Simeonov, P.L., Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. on Parallel & Distributed Processing - IPDPS'02, 2002) is a new type of communications architecture defined by: (1) flexible, multi-modal specialization of network nodes as virtual subnetworks; (2) mobility and virtualization of the net functions in hardware and software; (3) self-organization as multi-feedback-based topology-on-demand. Network elements can contain several exchangeable modules capable of executing diverse network functions in parallel. These functions can be invoked, transported to or generated in the nodes upon delivery of mobile code containing programs about the node's behaviour. An essential characteristic of the WN approach is the inherent ability to spread out instantly information about architectural changes among the nodes by encoding executable re-construction (genetic) instructions within the transported active packets - as "network" genes, N-genes.