PCBA: A priority-based competitive broadcasting algorithm in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Broadcasting operations are of great importance in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) since they are frequently executed. A straightforward broadcasting by flooding will produce serious redundancy, contention and collision, and furthermore it will result in the performance degradation of the networks. PCBA, a Priority-based Competitive Broadcasting Algorithm, is proposed in this paper to solve the above problem. In this algorithm, hosts with larger Priority Index (PI) have higher probability to rebroadcast relevant messages while some other hosts will be prevented from rebroadcasting according to the competing policy. PCBA is a distributed algorithm and will not increase communication overhead. Through the analyses and extensive simulations, the authors demonstrate that PCBA has advantages in availability and scalability. It can significantly reduce the rebroadcast redundancy. In addition, PCBA can also be further used in other applications such as routing discovery schemes, enhancing the performance.