Design of an IP address Auto-Configuration scheme for Wireless Multi-Hop Networks
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Date
2008
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Abstract
The importance of wireless ad-hoc networks (eg wireless mesh networks) in community and
commercial connectivity cannot be underestimated in view of the benefits associated with
such networks. An ad-hoc network must assemble itself from any devices that happen to be
nearby, and adapt as devices move in and out of wireless range. High levels of self organization
will minimize the need for manual configuration. In essence, self-organization
provides an out-of-the-box functionality such that very little technical expertise is required to
setup a network. However, efficiently providing unique IP addresses in ad-hoc networks is
still an open research question. The goal of this study, on wireless multi-hop networks, was
to develop algorithms for IP address auto-configuration. These algorithms should address
the following among other problems: Achieving high levels of address uniqueness without
compromising on latency and communication overhead.
To achieve the overall goal of this research we proposed changes to the traditional DAD
procedure, the Wise-DAD protocol was proposed. We introduced state information
maintenance, which is passively collected and synchronized. Passively collecting state
information reduced the number of DAD trials thereby reducing latency and communication
overhead. Simulations were done in NS-2 to test the performance of the proposed protocol.
A comparative analysis was then conducted. Wise-DAD was compared with the Strong-DAD
protocol. Experiments on the effect of network size, node density and node arrival rate on
communication overhead, address uniqueness and latency were conducted.
Results from the simulation experiments show that Wise-DAD outperforms Strong-DAD in
all the three metrics used for performance evaluation. First, Wise-DAD showed better
scalability since it performed better than Strong-DAD when network size was increased.
Communication overhead in Wise-DAD was generally low whilst the latency was generally
uniform. The number of IP address duplicates recorded was reasonably low. Second, Wise-
DAD was not affected by node arrival rate on all the three metrics that were recorded. On the
other hand, the number of address duplicates in Strong-DAD decreased as the node arrival
rate was increased. Interference significantly affected communication overhead recorded in
Strong-DAD. Wise-DAD, on the other hand, was not affected by interference. The number of
address conflicts in both protocols showed an inverse relationship to interference. However,
the number of conflicts for both protocols was significantly different; Wise-DAD recorded
much less address conflicts than Strong-DAD.
Description
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science (Computer Science)
Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Agriculture,
University of Zululand,
2008.
Keywords
IP address design, Wireless Networks