Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: Protocol Design and Implementation

Mobile communication networks have become an integral part of our society, significantly enhancing communication capabilities. Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) extend this capability to any time/anywhere communication, providing connectivity without the need of an underlying infrastructure. The new coming realm of mobile ad hoc networks is first investigated, focusing on research problems related to the design and development of routing protocols, both from a formal and technical point of view. Then link stability in a high mobility environment is examined, and a route discovery mechanism is analyzed, together with a practical implementation of a routing protocol in ad hoc multi-rate environments which privileges link stability instead of traditional speed and minimum distance approaches