Opportunistic Routing

still under construction

Introduction

Most conventional approaches for routing in MANETs (mobile ad-hoc networks) use a model, which is deviated from the wired model: Each pair of nodes is seen either as linked or not linked, only linked nodes can communicate directly:

Using algorithms known from wired networks, static routes are chosen before a packet is sent through the network. Unfortunately, this masks the wireless characteristics: In wireless networks, all nodes - in principle - can communicate with each other:

The error rate may be high, but most pairs of nodes have at least a minimal chance of hearing each others packets (in a non-deterministic manner). Even more: Every node receives all packets which are sent by all of its neighbours, which is a difference to wired networks where all communication is somehow directed. The new approach, called "Extremely Opportunistic Routing" tries to use the advantages of these characteristics, to create a more powerful routing protocol for MANETs.