A User Level Framework for Ad hoc Routing

             Jeremie Allard    Paul Gonin
             Minoo Singh       Golden G. Richard III
                  Dept. of Computer Science
                  University of New Orleans
                   New Orleans, LA  70148
     Contacts: {jallard, paul, minoo, golden}@cs.uno.edu
 
Abstract

  The availability of inexpensive wireless networking hardware (e.g., 
based on the IEEE 802.11 standards) has generated interest in a large 
class of wireless applications.  Many applications benefit from 
rapidly deployable networks—for example, collaborative applications to 
support field research or emergency incident response.  The need for 
networks that can be rapidly deployed has resulted in a substantial 
body of research in ad hoc rout-ing protocols.  Such protocols use 
intermediate nodes as routers and support highly dynamic network 
configurations. 

  We have developed a portable, user-level framework for ad hoc routing 
in C++.  In our current implementa-tion of this framework a tailored 
SOCKS proxy handles client requests and uses an implementation of an 
ad-hoc routing protocol to provide routing.  So far, implementations of 
DSR and flooding are provided, but other routing protocol implementations
 can easily be incorporated. An integrated simulator allows new routing 
protocols to be tested, and the code can be moved to a production ad hoc 
deployment with no modification.  Our framework is suit-able for a number 
of purposes, from ad hoc routing pro-tocol research, where new protocols 
can be rapidly de-veloped and tested, to the deployment of real ad hoc 
networks.  The system is easily installed on a wide variety of operating 
systems and requires no kernel hacking.