Evaluating failure detection in mobile ad-hoc networks

Purpose - Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) are networks that are formed in an ad-hoc manner by collections of devices that are equipped with wireless communication capabilities, such as the popular WiFi (IEEE 802.11b) standard. As the hardware technology and networking protocols for MANETs become mature and ubiquitous, the main barrier for MANETs to become widely used is applications. Like in other areas of distributed computing, in order to expedite the development of applications, there is a need for middleware services that support these applications. Failure detection has been identified as a basic component for many reliable distributed middleware services and applications. This paper aims to investigate this issue. Design/methodology/approach - This paper presents an adaptation of a gossip-based failure detection protocol to MANETs, and an evaluation by extensive simulations of this protocol's performance in such networks. Findings - The results can be viewed as a feasibility check for implementing failure detection in MANETs, and the conclusions drawn from them can be used to motivate and improve future implementations of both a failure detection component and of applications and middleware services relying on such a component. Originality/value - This paper presents an adaptation of a gossip-based failure detection protocol to MANET environments, and presents an extensive simulation-based performance study of this protocol in MANETs with various parameters.