An agent-based protocol to support multimedia communication in ad hoc wireless networks
Romit RoyChoudhury, Krishna Paul, Samir Kumar Bandyopadhyay · 2005
Realizing high volume real time communication in a highly dynamic architecture like Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) still remains a major point of research. In this paper, we have attempted to address the issue of maintaining an uninterrupted session between a source and a destination through multiple paths in a temporal domain. We have tried to develop an agentcentric protocol that would accomplish multimedia communication over adaptively selected routes. The protocol ensures minimal consumption of network resources. We have organized this work in two logical steps. In the first part, we have devised an agent-based framework with its associated protocols and mechanisms. The agents in the framework move from one node to another in the MANET architecture. The primary objective of this mobile multi-agent framework is to asynchronously collect network topology information (like node velocity, node location etc.) and distribute them into the information cache of all other nodes. This is accomplished proactively with the aim of making all nodes in the system topology-aware. The second part of the work attempts to make use of this topology awareness in the context of establishing and maintaining a communication link between two nodes. The agentenabled proactive replenishment of fresh topology information enables the node to constantly evaluate network conditions.