Probabilistic broadcast for flooding in wireless mobile ad hoc networks

Although far from optimal, flooding is an indispensable message dissemination technique for network-wide broadcast within mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). As such, the plain flooding algorithm provokes a high number of unnecessary packet rebroadcasts, causing contention, packet collisions and ultimately wasting precious limited bandwidth. Studies have been undertaken to optimize flooding using a deterministic approach. Because of the highly dynamic and mobile characteristics of MANETs, probabilistic algorithms may be better suited. We explore the phase transition phenomenon observed in percolation theory and random graphs as a basis for defining probabilistic flooding algorithms. We consider models with and without packet collisions to better understand when phase transition occurs. We show through simulation that in cases of no collision control, probabilistic flooding greatly enhances network performance while significantly reducing broadcast packets in dense networks, although phase transition is not observed.