Robust flow admission control and routing for mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks suffer from route breakups caused by nodal mobility. In a network that aims to support critical interactive real time data and flows, as well as the uninterrupted transport of a complete file or a critical series of messages, it is essential to identify robust routes that can be used for the un-interrupted transport execution of such transactions. Noting that route failures can induce long re-routing delays that may be highly interruptive for many applications and message/stream transactions, it is beneficial to configure the routing scheme to send a flow across a route whose lifetime is longer, with sufficiently high probability, than the estimated duration of the activity burst that it is selected to carry. We evaluate the ability of a mobile ad hoc wireless network to distribute flows across robust routes by introducing the robust throughput measure as a performance metric. For example, only transactions that are completed without being prematurely interrupted may convey data to their intended users that is of acceptable utility and is thus accounted for. We describe the mathematical calculation of a network's robust throughput measure, as well as its robust throughput capacity. In order to transport flows in mobile ad hoc wireless network in a robust fashion, we introduce the Robust Flow Admission and Routing algorithm (RFAR). Under this on-demand routing scheme, during the route discovery phase, nodal routers configure routing forwarding entries to forward flow packets only across links that induce a sufficiently high cumulative route robustness level. Shortest (or least end-to-end delay) such routes are subsequently discovered and established, serving to best utilize network capacity resources while meeting flow robustness objectives. We demonstrate through mathematical analysis and by using simulation evaluations that, such a robust routing mechanism serves to significantly enhance the robust throughput performance of mobile ad hoc wireless network systems.