Message efficient global snapshot recording using a self stabilizing spanning tree in a MANET

Abstract

Distributed snapshots are a significant paradigm for distributed systems. These are applied for constructing checkpoint protocols, apart from investigating, testing, or proving properties in distributed executions such as deadlocks and termination. Though a number of snapshot algorithms exist for traditional distributed systems, they cannot be directly applied to mobile ad hoc networks due to the constraints of topology and hostile conditions in which the MANETs operate. The paper presents an algorithm for recording the global state of a clustered and multi-hop mobile ad hoc network. The proposed algorithm imposes a self stabilizing spanning tree upon the network topology to reduce the message overhead in the system due to the algorithm and to deal with the dynamic nature of MANETs. Moreover, the protocol handles concurrent snapshot initiation and does not require FIFO channels. The message complexity of snapshot recording is O(n-1) where n is the number of clusters in the system