Implementation of SAMPLE Protocol

Abstract

Wireless networks are pervasive in our society. With an increased interest shown by the general public in wireless technologies, protocols and hardware are being actively developed by academic and industrial groups alike. Moblie ad hoc networks (MANET) are an important subset of wireless networks and have particular routing needs which are not supported by 802.11, the most widely deployed wireless protocol. They must operate in the presence of interference, contention and cope with challenges such as limited energy resources mobility and lack of global state. Numerous ad hoc protocols have been developed to support communication in MANETs but take a discrete approach. To consider a link as discrete does not reflect the reality of congestion and signal degradation. SAMPLE approaches these problems using statistical analysis, reinforcement and collaborative learning. Network events are observed over period of time and allow SAMPLE to determine the quality and sta- bility of routes. This differs from a discrete approach which can trigger unnecessary and inefficient route updates while consuming bandwidth. SAMPLE uses promiscuous listening to integrate data from overheard traffic to enhance its current view of the network. This dissertation presents an implementation of the SAMPLE protocol on the Linux 2.4 operating system. Increased portability and maintainability are obtained by inte- grating the SAMPLE protocol with the more stable netfilter architecture rather than the kernel core.