Remarks on ad hoc networking

This papers describes selected problems and solutions for ad hoc networking, namely, for networking in absence of a fixed infrastructure. All nodes of an ad hoc networks move freely and communicate with each other only if they are in each other transmission range (neighboring nodes). This implies that in case two nodes are not neighbors, in order for them to communicate they have to rely on the forwarding services of intermediate nodes, i.e., each node is a router and the communication proceeds in multi-hop fashion. In this paper we are concerned with three aspects of ad hoc networking. The problem of accessing the wireless channel, i.e., the problem of devising Media Access Control (MAC) protocols. The problem of grouping the nodes of the network so to obtain a hierarchical network structure (clustering). The problem of setting up an ad hoc network of Bluetooth devices, i.e., of forming a Bluetooth scatternet.