Subject: [manet] Concerning reactive protocols

From: "Mullen, John P. (Contractor)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 10:49:14 -0600

Gradually, as I read the recent posts, I've formed a question.

In a reactive protocol, a node will request a route when it wishes to send a
message to another node.  This has been shown to be efficient, at least for
some MANETs because the increased latency is more than offset by the lower
routing overhead and smaller memory demands at each node.

However, how does the sending node know the receiving node is there?

I'm not speaking of a partition here, but a situation in which a node that
represents a resource, such as access to the Internet, emergency assistance,
technical advice, telephone modem, printer, etc., which may or may not be
present in a particular MANET.  Even if present, the sending node would only
know the node's function, not its IP address.

I hesitate to suggest the MANET equivalent of Spam, but would it be
appropriate for such special nodes to send out some sort of beacon to
advertise both their IP and the useful resource available at that IP, even
if the underlying protocol is reactive?

I suppose an alternative could be to have a RREQ for any node with a given
capability, rather than a specific IP address.

John Mullen

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From: "Su, William" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 17:07:14 -0400

Hi John,

>capability, rather than a specific IP address.

If I understand your description correctly , I believe what you're looking
for is anycast.  Some example work include the NRL ARMS project, see
http://tonnant.itd.nrl.navy.mil/anycast/arms.html.

Bill

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From: "Su, William" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 17:07:14 -0400

Hi John,

Bill