[OLSR-users] Link quality extension to olsrd

[Andrew Nott]

Thomas Lopatic wrote:
> * When creating a routing table we chose the path between us and a 
> destination node that has the best total link quality TLQ = LQ1 * LQ2 * 
> ... * LQn, where the LQx values are the individual qualities of the 
> links between the hops between us and the destination node. In this way 
> the probability that a packet actually gets through from us to a 
> destination node is maximized.

Firstly, this sounds like a great improvement, thanks for your work. One 
thing that might be worth trying would be to select routes by dividing 
hop count by total link quality to produce an estimate of the number of 
packet transmissions required to successfully negotiate the route, 
including retransmissions. Then you could use that number as an 
'effective hop count' and simply select the lowest. This isn't my idea, 
as it should be functionally equivalent to the ETX routing metric.

The problem this solves is that in choosing between two routes where one 
is slightly lower quality but substantially shorter I imagine the 
lossier route would actually provide better throughput and lower latency.

Andrew Nott