Many protocols for Mobile Ad-hoc Networks propose construction of routes reactively using flooding. The advantage hereof is that no prior assumption of the network topology is required in order to provide routing between any pair of nodes in the network. In mobile networks, where the topology may be subject to frequent changes, this is a particularly attractive property. In this paper, we investigate the effect of using flooding for acquiring routes. We show that flooding may lead to non-optimal routes in terms of number of hops. This implies that more retransmissions are needed to send a packet along a route. We proceed by providing a qualitative analysis of the route lengths. Finally, we propose alternative flooding schemes and evaluate these schemes through simulations. We find that using these schemes, it is indeed possible to provide shorter routes.
In Proceeding of The First Annual Mediterranean Ad Hoc Networking Workshop., 2002 – PDF