Routing for Wireless Multi Hop Networks – Unifying and Distinguishing Features

In a wireless multi-hop network, one of the important challenges is how to route packets efficiently. The availability of many intermediate nodes between a source and a destination results in having many optional paths/routes to follow. The challenge is to pick an optimal path that satisfies the needed performance requirements-this is the responsibility of the routing protocol. There are four wireless network paradigms under the category of wireless multi-hop networks: Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks In these four network paradigms, routing plays a vital and critical role and is considered one of the most important design elements. Being categorized as wireless multi-hop networks, the four aforementioned network paradigms share some commonalities in terms of their routing functions. However, as each of these network paradigms has its own unique characteristics and environment/application needs, each has some distinct aspects that distinguish its routing approaches from others. The focus of this depth paper is showing the unifications and distinctions of routing functions for the four multi-hop networks. In addition, we propose a generic routing model that can be the foundation of the wireless multi-hop routing function and can be inherited by any wireless multi-hop routing protocol. As well, we present our view of the ideal wireless multi-hop routing protocol along with several open issues.