Landmark guided forwarding

In this paper we focus on the problems of maintaining ad hoc network connectivity in the presence of node mobility whilst providing globally efficient and robust routing. The common approach among existing wireless ad hoc routing solutions is to establish a global optimal path between a source and a destination. We argue that establishing a globally optimal path is both unreliable and unsustainable as the network diameter, traffic volume and number of nodes all increase in the presence of moderate node mobility. To address this we propose landmark guided forwarding (LGF), a protocol that provides a hybrid solution of topological and geographical routing algorithms. We demonstrate that LGF is adaptive to unstable connectivity and scalable to large networks. Our results indicate therefore that landmark guided forwarding converges much faster, scales better and adapts well within a dynamic wireless ad hoc environment in comparison to existing solutions.