[olsr-dev] Improvements in the algorithm

[Dan]

> I dont expect any ad-hoc wireless network to
> scale on global level ;-) Its nice dreaming about this, though.
> 
> cu elektra

Hi elecktra,

Certainly I don't think wireless is the answer to global connectivity
issues.  In many aspects cables will always be better than radio waves.  But
now with networking so ubiquitous we are starting to see the real
limitations of the IP protocol.  It scales well but handles mobility badly.
Mesh routing is the opposite.  It handles mobility well but scales badly.

Read the bottom couple of paragraphs of my previous post in this list to get
to the good stuff.  It's called DART.  There are "scalable" adhoc routing
protocols that use various methods to build a hierarchy.  I believe your
suggestion closely matches what ZRP does.  Other methods use geographic
information to lighten the routing overhead load - so each mobile node needs
to have a GPS receiver installed.

DART is different.  It revamps the addressing scheme, so that each node has
a static identity, and a dynamic routing address that automatically changes
as the node roams the network.  The advantage of this is that routing tables
stay extremely small (logarithmic to the number of nodes), and address space
is allocated in the most efficient manner possible.  It also means that you
don't necessarily need to have a human-managed IP allocation system -
although IP addresses will be used as the static identities to maintain
compatibility with IP-dependant applications.  Theoretically, DART could be
completely self-organising, able to scale globally with no human
administration or centralised servers to provide critical network services
like DHCP or DNS.

I've emailed Jakob Eriksson who is one of the developers.  He said that with
a little more interest he might release some Linux code sooner rather than
later.  Personally I think DART is quite revolutionary and can't wait to
play with it.  I'm hoping to get more people interested.  I also want to
hear any criticisms of the protocol.

Here's some light reading material:

DART Poster - a nice easy summary of the project
http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~jeriksson/dartweb/DART_Poster_ICNP_03.pdf

DART Project Homepage:
http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~jeriksson/dartweb/

Scalable Ad Hoc Routing: The Case for Dynamic Addressing - the in-depth
paper outlining the specifics of the protocol - presented to INFOCOMM 2004
http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~jeriksson/dartweb/DART_INFOCOM_04.pdf

Cheers,

Dan

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