Performance and Scaling of Wireless Ad Hoc IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration under Mobile Gateways

Autoconfiguration mechanisms in general, and stateless address autoconfiguration in particular, are highly desirable capabilities of military mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). However, IPv6 stateless autoconfiguration schemes for MANETs still have to be refined, and a convincing demonstration is needed to show that these schemes can cope with the dynamic, infrastructure-free environment wherein MANETs operate. In this paper we provide a literature survey of autoconfiguration schemes designed for MANETs. In addition, we look at a specific stateless autoconfiguration scheme (by Jelger and Noel, SECON 2005). This scheme provides globally routable IPv6 prefixes to a MANET, attached to the Internet via gateways. We examine this approach through OPNET simulation, applying new mobility models to encourage squad-like clusters around gateways, introducing mobility to the gateways, and scaling the number of ad hoc nodes and the number of gateways independently. We then comment on the performance of the Jelger-Noel addressing scheme in terms of protocol overhead, autoconfiguration time, prefix hold times, and prefix stability.