Efficient Broadcast in Mobile Adhoc Networks Utilizing Rateless Coding

Abstract

This paper presents a novel efficient broadcast protocol for mobile ad hoc networks referred to as mobile adaptive probabilistic broadcast (MAPcast). MAPcast integrates application-layer rateless coding with adaptive probabilistic packet forwarding amongst the nodes of a mobile network without the need for information from nodes other than an immediate neighbor (one hop). MAPcast is developed as a method to reduce the number of overall packet transmissions, thus conserving power, while ensuring very high network reachability. MAPcast is compared with existing methods of data broadcast to examine the energy efficiency and reachability provided using the protocol outlined in this paper.