A QoS routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks based on a reservation pool

Even without possible interference from external radio sources, the problem of guaranteeing quality-of-service (QoS) routing in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is a difficult problem. Difficulties arise because node mobility can cause frequent network topology changes, communication channels can have high error rates, the jitter rate is high and several different applications can be sharing the use of the communication medium. This paper addresses these issues and proposes a new QoS routing protocol for MANETs that combines aspects of a MAC protocol and a path reservation protocol. The proposed QoS routing protocol can be implemented based on any routing method that supports multiple paths (e.g., DSDV, TORA, PDR). The QoS performance of the proposed protocol is verified with simulations conducted using NS-2.