A Coding-Based Routing for Scalable MANET

In this paper, we present a novel approach for MANET routing that holds a potential to drastically increase scalability in terms of number of nodes (network size) and number of hops (network diameter). The new approach is founded on paradigm-shifting principles that are fundamentally scalable and secure. We first describe fundamental drawbacks of wire-based MANET routing protocols. Then, we lay out fundamental theories that overcome such drawbacks while inherently capturing the unique wireless characteristics and effectively supporting the evolving requirements of distributed network applications for military MANET user communities. Focusing on the fundamental aspects of the problem rather than "heuristics" provides us the maximum opportunity to extend the scalability of the new protocols over a wide range of scenarios and applications. Next, we describe high-level concepts of practical MANET routing protocols that build upon these fundamentals. We claim that these protocols are likely to be inherently scalable, robust and efficient because they leverage and exploit information-theoretic principles as well as the unique MANET characteristics rather than eliminate them in order to force the wired architecture. Preliminary simulation results show considerable performance gain over legacy MANET routing approach