14-09-2017, 03:30 PM
The goal of communication in computer networks is the delivery of information to endpoints with certain properties. In wired networks, identities such as IP addresses are used to guide information across a network and the properties of network nodes are mapped to these identities through service discovery mechanisms. In ad hoc mobile networks (MANETs), identities lose their ability to guide due to the dynamism of the topology. Instead of identities, we introduce a concept called characteristic, which describes the properties of nodes. The characteristics are diffused through a network, simulating the flow of water currents. Messages are sent to their destination nodes with properties given following these characteristics as following a stream of water to their source. Feature-based routing differs from existing content-based routing in which a feature describes characteristics of MANET nodes rather than data message contents. A tracing feature is left by data messages along its forwarding path. Subsequent data messages may be forwarded to the same destination node and the reply messages may be returned to the sender of data messages following the tracking feature. We show that a feature-based approach increases the successful delivery rate compared to existing identity-based approaches in MANETs. Next, we analyze the ability of tracing features to maintain routes for subsequent data messages in different mobility configurations.