NCA: New Cooperative Algorithm for Reducing Topology Control Packets in OLSR

OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing Protocol) is a routing protocol designed especially for MANETs (Mobile Ad hoc Networks) and is currently the most widely deployed for this type of networks. OLSR uses multipoint relay (MPR: MultiPoint Relay) flooding mechanism to optimize topology control messages broadcasting throughout the network. Each node of the network selects a subset of nodes (MPR) among its neighbors to disseminate control messages. Reducing topology control packets (TC) is the key functionality of OLSR. In the Ad hoc network, the number of TC depends on the choice of MPR. In this paper, we propose a new cooperative MPR selection algorithm with the aim to reduce TC packets. We implemented this algorithm in NS2 and three other algorithms are known to be performant in the domain. Simulation results show that our algorithm reduces TC packets relative to other algorithms. This reduction is reflected positively on other performance parameters.