Analysis of link error effects in MANET address autoconfiguration protocols

This paper focuses on message complexity performance analysis of mobile ad hoc network (MANET) address autoconfiguration protocols (AAPs) in reference to link errors generated by mobile wireless nodes. An enhancement was made using a proposed retransmission limit, S, to be computed for error recovery (based on the link error probability), to measure message complexity of AAPs in reference to the link error probability, P_e. The control procedures for the retransmission limit have been included for each of the AAPs. Retransmission limit control is critical for efficient energy consumption of MANET nodes operating on limited portable energy. O-notation has been applied to analyze the upper bound of the number of messages generated by a MANET group of nodes. The AAPs investigated in this paper are strong duplicate address detection (DAD), weak DAD with proactive routing protocol (WDP), weak DAD with on-demand routing protocol (WDO), and MANETConf. Each AAP reacts different to link errors, as each AAP has different operational procedures. The required number of broadcasting, unicasting, relaying, and received messages of the nodes participating in a single-node joining procedure is investigated to asymptotically calculate the message complexity of each AAP. Computer simulation was conducted and the results have been analyzed to verify the theoretical message complexity bounds derived. The message complexity of WDP was lowest, closely followed by WDO, based on the simulation results and analysis of the message complexity under nominal situations. The message complexity of MANETConf was higher than WDO, and strong DAD resulted to be most complex among the four AAPs.