Semi-Probabilistic Routing in Intermittently Connected Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

ICMANs (Intermittently Connected Mobile Ad hoc Networks) are wireless networks where most of the time there does not exist a complete path from the source to the destination. In this paper, a novel routing approach, SPR (Semi-Probabilistic Routing), is proposed to address routing problem in ICMANs. SPR takes into account information about host mobility and connectivity changes to produce estimates enabling more accurate message forwarding. These include maintaining proactive routing zones for stable local topology to minimize blind message forwarding, and identifying potential carriers to maximize message delivery despite network partitions and intermittent connectivity. That information is also utilized to manage buffer space more efficiently. Under energy constrained circumstance, energy-aware delivery probability model is adopted to reserve the energy of nodes providing critical intermittently connected path. We compare the performance of our protocol against others, using a mobility model validated with real-world traces.