A proactive fault tolerance management algorithm for Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Mobile Ad hoc networking is evolving to form the basis for future military and disaster relief network architecture. In such high dynamic networks, such Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs) are formed over wireless links that are susceptible to failure. Strict requirements on managing security and reliability combined with the dynamic nature of the network provide a strong motivation for proactive self-organizing, self configuring, and self healing management capabilities in the network. This paper describes a Proactive Management Algorithm (PMA) for MANETs. PMA is based on the effective integration of autonomous, predictive and adaptive distributed management strategies to provide proactive fault tolerance management algorithm. Proactive management is achieved through the distributed analysis of the current performance of the mobile nodes utilizing an optimistic discrete event simulation method, which is used to predict the mobile nodes future status and to execute a proactive fault tolerant management scheme. PMA take advantage of distributed parallel processing, flexibility and intelligence of active packets to minimize the management overhead, while adapting to the highly dynamic and resource-constrained nature of MANETs. The simulation results demonstrate that PMA not only significantly reduce management control overhead, but also substantially improves both the performance and the stability of the MANET's.