On Maintaining Group Membership Data in Ad Hoc Networks
Gruia-Catalin Roman · Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis) · 2000
The design of ad hoc mobile applications often requires the availability of a consistent view of the application state among the participating hosts. Essential to constructing a consistent view is the ability to know what hosts are within proximity of each other, i.e., form a group in support of the particular application. In this paper we propose an algorithm that allows hosts within communication range to maintain a consistent view of the group membership despite movement and frequent disconnections. The novel features of this algorithm are its reliance on location information and a conservative notion of logical connectivity that creates the illusion of announced disconnection. Analysis of movement patterns and delays is used to anticipate physical disconnections before they can impact application results.