Implementation study for mobile ad hoc routing protocols –
Proposal for a Master Thesis Project
Supervisors:
Fagveileder (UniK): Dr Scient student Andreas Hafslund
Hovedveileder (UiO, UniK): 1. amanuensis Knut Øvsthus
Medveileder (NTNU, UniK): Post doc Frank Y. Li
Contact:
Andreas Hafslund
UniK – University Graduate Center /
THALES Communications AS
andreha@unik.no
64 84 47 34
Introduction to the project:
In a mobile ad hoc network (manet) [1] the nodes can move about arbitrarily. The
network must be self-adapting to the connectivity and propagation conditions, and
also to the traffic and user mobility pattern. Each node in a manet will logically
consists of a router that may have multiple hosts and that also may have multiple
wireless communications devices or interfaces to other nodes. In principle, the
network can be a standalone network. However, this offers only a limited
functionality. A usable network must be globally connected through one or more fixed
networks. The alternatives range from using only fixed routable addresses in the ad
hoc network to several tunnel based schemes including Virtual Private Network
(VPN), Mobile IP and Network Address Translation (NAT) supported by catalogue
systems.
The IETF working group on mobile ad hoc networks (manet) developes routing
protocols optimized for different conditions. Routing protocols can be divided into
reactive and proactive protocols. Reactive protocols, such as AODV and DSR, start
route determination only on demand. This means that route information may not be
available when a route request is received, and thus there can be significant delay
before a route to the wanted destination is determined. Also, there will be some
control traffic when doing route discovery. Proactive protocols, such as OLSR and
DSDV attempt to establish all routes within the network. This means that when a
route is needed, the route is already known and can be immediately used. Currently,
the IETF manet group is working to make an extension to OSPFv3. This extension
will provide support for wireless, mobile ad hoc routing, to an OSPF routing daemon.
The project:
Simulations of an ad hoc routing protocol can aid in the basic design and testing of a
protocol, but certain assumptions and simplifications will be made in simulations that
are not valid in a real-world scenario. Hence, it is important to implement and test the
ad hoc protocol for different real-world scenarios.
The setting of this Master Thesis project will be a mobile ad hoc network based on
one proactive protocol. The goal is to make an implementation of a drafted extension
to the OSPFv3 routing protocol. The extension will partly be based on functionality
from the OLSR routing protocol, and also the use of the already implemented source
code for this: www.olsr.org. The student will also be testing and analyzing the
implemented source code, with regards to different aspects of the utilization of the
protocol.
A new implementation of a routing protocol gives rise to several different questions.
The student will have to make necessary assumptions and simplifications of the
functionality of the protocol for this implementation. The student will also be
studying the routing functionality of the linux kernel, which the protocol will be
running on. The student might consider doing some changes to the routing protocol,
and possibly also the linux kernel. However, these changes will have to be made
without losing too much functionality of the routing protocol. Neither must the
changes to the linux kernel be such that it makes portability of the protocol difficult.
The student will be studying different implementations of other ad hoc routing
protocols, especially the OLSR and the AODV protocol, to find out what kind of
assumptions and simplifications will have to be made for this study.
Starting of the project:
This project will be divided in two approaches, one theoretical and one practical
(implementation) approach.
The theoretical approach will be a study of manets, its main characteristics, different
routing protocols (one reactive: AODV, two proactive: OLSR and OSPF), utilizations
etc. Further will the student focus on implementations of other ad hoc routing
protocols.
This project will give the student a theoretical study of wireless communications
technologies, for instance Wireless LAN, Mobile IP, Mobile ad hoc networking, and
possible also knowledge of UMTS, Bluetooth etc.
The practical approach will be the implementation of the extension to the OSPF
protocol. Further will the student be setting up a testbed for an ad hoc network. This
testbed will be used for the testing of the new implementation of the protocol. In the
end, the student will be analyzing and comparing the results for different ad hoc
network scenarios to evaluate the capabilities of the new implementation.
References:
[1] Corson, M. and J. Macker, ”Mobile Ad Hoc Networking (MANET): Routing
Protocol Performance Issues and Evaluation Considerations”, RFC 2501 January
1999.
[2] Royer, E. M., ”An Implementation Study of the AODV Routing Protocol”.
[3] the APE testbed: http://apetestbed.sourceforge.net/