A survey of integrating IP mobility protocols and mobile ad hoc networks

Abstract

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is an infrastructureless, autonomous, and standalone network. A MANET can be flexibly and simply deployed in almost any environment, but it has limited wireless coverage and its connectivity is limited to the MANET boundary. The growth of the Internet and its services and applications - and the trend in the fourth generation (4G) wireless networks toward All-IP networks - have led to an increasing demand for enabling MANET nodes to connect to the Internet and use its services and applications. Mobile IP and IP micromobility protocols enable a mobile node to access the Internet and change its access point without losing the connection. The mobile node should be in the coverage range of the access point and should have a direct connection to it. So, with the cooperation between MANET routing protocols and the IP mobility protocol, Internet connectivity to MANET nodes can be achieved. Many solutions have been proposed to enable MANETs to connect to the Internet using IP mobility protocols. This article presents a survey of solutions for integrating MANETs with the Internet, with the intent of serving as a quick reference to current research proposals for Internet connectivity for mobile ad hoc networks based on IP mobility protocols. A qualitative comparison of the routing solutions for integration is presented. The limitations of these integration solutions are also investigated. A framework for integrating the Cellular IP access network and MANETs is introduced. This survey concludes with further points for investigation.