Reliable Broadcasting Using Efficient Forward Node Selection for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Due to the broadcasting nature of radio transmission, the most fundamental task in MANETs is the broadcast operation. All the current routing protocols depend upon the easier form of broadcasting called flooding which can result in high broadcast redundancy and packet collisions. In this paper, we propose to develop a reliable broadcasting algorithm which is a sender-based algorithm. In this algorithm, the broadcasting nodes select a subset of their neighbors to forward the message using an efficient forward node selection mechanism. The retransmissions of the forwarding nodes are overheard by the sender as the confirmation of their reception of the packet. Moreover, a NACK mechanism is used to provide full reliability for all non forwarding nodes. This algorithm reduces the average retransmission redundancy, avoids both the broadcast storm problem and the ACK implosion problem, recovers the transmission error locally and increases the broadcast delivery ratio. By simulation results, we show that our proposed algorithm achieves good delivery ratio with less forwarding and control overhead.