Multihop Ad Hoc Networking: The Evolutionary Path
Marco Conti, Silvia Giordano · 2013
This chapter discusses the evolution of the mobile/multihop ad hoc networking (MANET) paradigm. This paradigm has often been identified with the technologies developed inside the MANET IETF working group. Specifically, the chapter analyzes the reasons why the MANET paradigm does not have a major impact on computer communications. Then, starting from the lessons learned from the MANET research activities, it discusses how the multihop ad hoc networking paradigm has evolved toward a set of pragmatic networking approaches that are currently penetrating the mass market. Specifically, the chapter discusses four successful networking paradigms that emerged from the evolution of the multihop ad hoc networking concept: mesh, opportunistic, vehicular, and sensor networks. In these cases the multihop ad hoc paradigm is applied in a pragmatic way to extend the Internet and/or to support well-defined application requirements, thus providing a set of technologies that have a major impact on the wireless-networking field. Controlled Vocabulary Terms mobile ad hoc networks; wireless mesh networks; wireless sensor networks