Peer-to-peer zone-based two-level link state routing for mobile ad hoc networks

A new global positioning system (GPS)-based routing protocol for ad hoc networks, called zone-based hierarchical link state (ZHLS) routing protocol, is proposed. In this protocol, the network is divided into nonoverlapping zones. Each node only knows the node connectivity within its zone and the zone connectivity of the whole network. The link state routing is performed on two levels: local node and global zone levels. Unlike other hierarchical protocols, there is no cluster head in this protocol. The zone level topological information is distributed to all nodes. This `peer-to-peer' manner mitigates traffic bottleneck, avoids single point of failure, and simplifies mobility management. Since only zone ID and node ID of a destination are needed for routing, the route from a source to a destination is adaptable to changing topology. The zone ID of the destination is found by sending one location request to every zone. Simulation results show that our location search scheme generates less overhead than the schemes based on flooding. The results also confirm that the communication overhead for creating and maintaining the topology in the proposed protocol is smaller than that in the flat LSR protocol. This new routing protocol provides a flexible, efficient, and effective approach to accommodate the changing topology in a wireless network environment.