Reliable and efficient forwarding in ad hoc networks

This paper focuses on packet forwarding in ad hoc networks and proposes a new approach to improve performance of nodes communication. In particular, we present a lightweight mechanism for REliable and Efficient Forwarding (REEF), which mitigates the effects of adverse situations caused by cooperation misbehavior or network fault conditions. It exploits nodes local knowledge to estimates route reliability, and multi-path routing to forward packets on the most reliable route. REEF becomes also a security mechanism in case of a security association established between the communication parties. This additional feature makes the mechanism robust, guaranteeing trustworthiness of the reliability estimator and security of data transmission. A new approach to cooperation enforcing is also proposed. The classical method denies service to misbehaving nodes by, for example, not serving their forwarding requests. We approach the problem less drastically, differentiating the quality of service provided to nodes according to their behavior. In other words, traffic of misbehaving nodes will flow through the network slower than that one of reliable nodes. 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.