A High Capacity Scalable Routing Protocol for VoIP in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

In this work we introduce a new routing protocol for Wireless Ad hoc Networks specifically designed for VoIP. Based on modifications to standard geographic routing protocols, our new protocol is designed to deliver two key attributes that hitherto are not simultaneously present in any other single ad hoc routing protocol. Specifically, our protocol maximizes VoIP capacity whilst remaining scalable. Prior to this work, state-of-the-art routing protocols which best address the issue of maximizing VoIP capacity in ad hoc networks can be considered to be those based on the Expected Transmission Count (ETX) metric. As such, the performance benefits of our protocol relative to protocols using ETX are detailed. In the context of VoIP, the most important performance improvement for our protocol relative to ETX protocols, is an up-to factor of two improvement in VoIP capacity for anticipated ad hoc network scenarios. Although designed primarily for wireless VoIP, our protocol can be readily adapted to any real-time application deployed over wireless architectures which contain an ad hoc component.