Location aided broadcast in wireless ad hoc network systems

Ad hoc networks in wireless communications is a challenging field due to the constant change of network topology. Broadcast service in ad hoc networks is critical in supporting various important applications and message routing. We examine the problem of the traditional broadcast protocol (i.e., flooding) in mobile wireless ad hoc networks, also known as "broadcast storm problem". We introduce a location aided algorithm to compute the optimal local cover set without delay and without much communication overhead. Based on the algorithm, we propose three new location-aided broadcast protocols for ad hoc networks that compute the optimal local cover set for retransmissions on-the-fly. We compare and analyze the simulation results of our protocols and others. The results show that our new protocols save a significant amount of wireless bandwidth and consume less overhead.