IETF MANET Working Group Mario Gerla
INTERNET-DRAFT Xiaoyan Hong
Expiration: May 17, 2003 Li Ma
University of California, Los Angeles
Guangyu Pei
Rockwell Scientific Company
November 17, 2002
Landmark Routing Protocol (LANMAR) for Large Scale Ad Hoc Networks
<draft-ietf-manet-lanmar-05.txt>
Status of This Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions
of Section 10 of RFC2026.
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This Internet-Draft is a submission to the IETF Mobile Ad Hoc
Networks (MANET) Working Group. Comments on this draft may be sent
to the Working Group at manet@itd.nrl.navy.mil, or may be sent
directly to the authors.
Abstract
The Landmark Routing Protocol (LANMAR) utilizes the concept of
landmark for scalable routing in large, mobile ad hoc networks.
It relies on the notion of group mobility: i.e., a logical group
(for example a team of coworkers at a convention) moves in a
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coordinated fashion. The existence of such logical group can be
efficiently reflected in the addressing scheme. It assumes that
an IP like address is used consisting of a group ID (or subnet ID)
and a host ID, i.e. <Group ID, Host ID>. A landmark is dynamically
elected in each group. The route to a landmark is propagated
throughout the network using a Distance Vector mechanism.
Separately, each node in the network uses a scoped routing
algorithm (e.g., FSR) to learn about routes within a given (max
number of hops) scope. To route a packet to a destination outside
its scope, a node will direct the packet to the landmark
corresponding to the group ID of such destination. Once the packet
approaches the landmark, it will typically be routed directly to
the destination. A solution to nodes outside of the scope of their
landmark (i.e., drifters) is also addressed in the draft. Thus,
by summarizing in the corresponding landmarks the routing
information of remote groups of nodes and by using the truncated
local routing table, LANMAR dramatically reduces routing table size
and routing update overhead in large networks. The dynamic
election of landmarks enables LANMAR to cope with mobile
environments. LANMAR is well suited to provide an efficient and
scalable routing solution in large, mobile, ad hoc environments in
which group behavior applies and high mobility renders traditional
routing schemes inefficient.
Contents
Status of This Memo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1. General Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2. Specification Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Protocol Applicability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1. Networking Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.2. Protocol Characteristics and Mechanisms . . . . . . . . 7
5. Protocol Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.1. Protocol Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.2. Landmark Election . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.3. Drifters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6. Protocol Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.1. Data Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.1.1 Landmark Status tuple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.1.2 Landmark Distance Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
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6.1.3 Drifter List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.2. LANMAR Update Message Format . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.2.1 Description of the fields . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.2.2 Propagation of LANMAR Update Messages . . . . . . 14
6.3. Processing Landmark Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.3.1 Originating a Landmark in a Subnet . . . . . . . 14
6.3.2 Receiving Landmark Updates . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6.3.3 Winner Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6.3.4 Dealing with Stale LMDV Entries . . . . . . . . . 16
6.4. Processing Drifter Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.4.1 Originating a Drifter Entry . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.4.2 Receiving Drifter Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.4.3 Removing a Drifter Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.5. Operations Regarding to Lost Neighbors . . . . . . . . . 17
7. Data Packet Forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8. Combining LANMAR with a Host Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8.1. Share Neighbor Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8.1.1 Inform the Host Protocol about a Neighbor . . . . 18
8.1.2 Being Informed about a Lost Neighbor . . . . . . 18
8.2. Scoped Routing Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8.2.1 Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector . . . . . . 18
8.2.2 Fisheye State Routing Protocol . . . . . . . . . 18
8.2.3 Optimized Link State Routing Protocol . . . . . . 18
8.2.4 Topology Broadcast Based on Reverse-Path Forwarding
. . . . . . 19
9. Implementation Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chair's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1. Introduction
This document describes the Landmark Routing Protocol (LANMAR) [1,2]
developed by the Wireless Adaptive Mobility (WAM) Laboratory [4] at
Computer Science Department, University of California, Los Angeles.
The concept of landmark routing was first introduced in wired area
networks [6]. The original scheme required predefined multi-level
hierarchical addressing. The hierarchical address of each node
reflects its position within the hierarchy and helps to find a route
to it. Each node knows the routes to all the nodes within its
hierarchical partition. Moreover, each node knows the routes to
various landmarks at different hierarchical levels. Packet
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forwarding is consistent with the landmark hierarchy and the path
is gradually refined from the top level hierarchy to lower levels
as a packet approaches its destination.
LANMAR borrows the concept of landmark and extends it to the
wireless ad hoc environment. LANMAR scheme does not require
predefined hierarchical address, but it uses the notion of landmarks
to keep track of logical subnets in which the members have a
commonality of interests and are likely to move as a group
(e.g., brigade in the battlefield, a group of students from same
class and a team of co-workers at a convention). Each such
logical group has an elected landmark. For each group,
the underlying scoped routing algorithm will provide accurate
routing information for nodes within scope. The routing
update packets are restricted only within the scope. The
routing information to remote nodes (nodes outside the node's
scope) is summarized by the corresponding landmarks. Thus,
the LANMAR scheme largely reduces the routing table size and
the routing update traffic overhead. It greatly improves
scalability.
In addition, in order to recover from landmark failures,
a landmark node is elected in each subnet. Landmark election
provides a flexible way for the LANMAR protocol to cope with a
dynamic and mobile network. The protocol also provides a solution
for nodes that are outside the scopes of the landmarks of
their logical groups (drifters).
The LANMAR runs on top of a proactive routing protocol. It
requires that the underlying routing protocol support the scoped
subnetworking. Many MANET proactive routing protocols (e.g., DSDV,
FSR, OLSR and TBRPF) can be the host protocol with only minor
modifications (Section 8). The main advantage of LANMAR is that
the routing table includes only the nodes within the scope and the
landmark nodes. This feature greatly improves scalability by
reducing routing table size and update traffic O/H.
Thus the Landmark Routing Protocol provides an efficient and
scalable routing solution for a mobile, ad hoc environment while
keeping line and storage overhead (O/H) low. Moreover, the
election provides a much needed recovery from landmark failures.
2. Changes
Major changes from version 04 to version 05:
- Clarified the relation between LANMAR and a host protocol, which
includes: Removed "Neighbor List" from LANMAR protocol and
description about related operations; Added operation
descriptions about sharing neighbor information with the host
protocol; Retained earlier descriptions about modifications on
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making various MANET proactive routing protocols to route within
scope, and TBRPF is added. All these combination efforts are
organized in Section 8.
- Removed "Landmark Flag" field from LANMAR Update message format.
Instead, "Packet type" field is added.
- Added "last heard time" field in LMDV. Also added operations
regarding to updating this field and timing out stale entries.
- Removed the description implying the dependency of LANMAR on the
local topology information, (as that is not the case any more,)
from descriptions of propagating and receiving a LMU.
- Editorial changes.
Major changes from version 03 to version 04:
- Removed "neighbor landmark flag" field from neighbor list.
Clarified the operations when a neighbor is lost.
- Clarified the processing of landmark update messages,
especially, the operations when an infinite distance metric
occurs. Operation regarding to an infinite distance metric is
also added in data forwarding.
- A separate section describing the operation before sending a
landmark update message is added.
- Reported current implementation status.
- Editorial changes.
Major changes from version 02 to version 03:
- A drifter sequence number is used in drifter list to indicate
each new occurrence of a drifter.
- Processing of lost neighbors is added.
- A separate section describing the modifications made to various
proactive protocols. Operations of these protocols will then
only perform within a certain hop distances.
- Editorial changes.
Major changes from version 01 to version 02:
- Update of Status of This Memo.
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Major changes from version 00 to version 01:
- A destination sequence number for each landmark is used to
ensure loop-free updates for a particular landmark.
- Landmark updates are propagated in separate messages, instead of
being piggybacked on local routing updates. This modification
decouples landmark routing from the underlying proactive routing
protocol.
3. Terminology
3.1. General Terms
This section defines terminology used in LANMAR.
node
A MANET router that implements Landmark Routing Protocol.
neighbor
Nodes that are within the radio transmission range.
scope
A network area that is centered at each node and bounded
by a certain maximum hop distances.
host protocol
Also known as local routing protocol, i.e., a proactive
protocol that works together with the Landmark Routing
Protocol, but only operates within the scope of each node.
underlying protocol
This term is used interchangeably with host protocol.
scoped routing protocol
A routing protocol that only exchanges routing information
up to a certain hop distance (scope).
subnet
Logical groups of nodes that present similar motion behavior.
group
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This term is used interchangeably with subnet.
3.2. Specification Language
The keywords MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT,
SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [5].
4. Protocol Applicability
4.1. Networking Context
LANMAR is best suited for large scale mobile ad hoc wireless
networks. The landmark scheme on top of a scoped routing
algorithm has large advantages in reducing routing update packet
size and keeping reasonably accurate routes to remote nodes.
Moreover, the fact that the route error is blurred by distance
obviously reduces the sensitivity to network size.
LANMAR is also suited for high mobility ad hoc wireless networks.
This is because in a mobile environment, a change on a link far
away from the source does not necessarily cause a change in the
routing table at the source since all the information about
remote nodes is summarized by landmarks.
4.2. Protocol Characteristics and Mechanisms
* Does the protocol provide support for unidirectional links?(if so,
how?)
No.
* Does the protocol require the use of tunneling? (if so, how?)
No.
* Does the protocol require using some form of source routing? (if
so, how?)
No.
* Does the protocol require the use of periodic messaging? (if so,
how?)
Yes. The LANMAR periodically broadcasts landmark information
to its neighbors.
* Does the protocol require the use of reliable or sequenced packet
delivery? (if so, how?)
No. As the packets are sent periodically, they need not be
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sent reliably.
* Does the protocol provide support for routing through a multi-
technology routing fabric? (if so, how?)
Yes. It is assumed that each node's network interface is
assigned a unique IP address.
* Does the protocol provide support for multiple hosts per router?
(if so, how?)
Yes. The router that has multiple hosts can use network ID of
these hosts as the address to participate LANMAR.
* Does the protocol support the IP addressing architecture? (if so,
how?)
Yes. Each node is assumed to have a unique IP address (or
set of unique IP addresses in the case of multiple interfaces).
The LANMAR references all nodes/interfaces by their IP address.
This version of the LANMAR also supports IP network addressing
(network prefixes) for routers that provide access to a
network of non-router hosts.
* Does the protocol require link or neighbor status sensing (if so,
how?)
No.
* Does the protocol have dependence on a central entity? (if so,
how?)
No.
* Does the protocol function reactively? (if so, how?)
No.
* Does the protocol function proactively? (if so, how?)
Yes. The LANMAR proactively maintains landmark information
at each node.
* Does the protocol provide loop-free routing? (if so, how?)
Yes. For in-scope destinations, the protocol uses routing
paths learned from the host protocol. If the host protocol
provides loop-free routing, e.g., FSR and DSDV, so does LANMAR.
For out-scope destinations, only routes to landmarks are used.
Because these routes are DSDV, it is loop free. When a packet
approaches the destination, in-scope routes are used again.
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* Does the protocol provide for sleep period operation?(if so, how?)
Yes. However, this requires TDMA MAC layer support. The
router can be scheduled to sleep during idle periods.
* Does the protocol provide some form of security? (if so, how?)
Yes. When a node broadcasts routing update message, only
entries of in-scope nodes and landmarks are included. This
will prevent other remote nodes from being heard.
* Does the protocol provide support for utilizing multi-channel,
link-layer technologies? (if so, how?)
Yes. In fact, the multi-channel can be used to separate
routing messages from user data packets.
5. Protocol Overview
5.1. Protocol Descriptions
As mentioned in Section 1, the landmark concept we adopt here uses
the notion of logical subnets in which the members have a
commonality of interests and are likely to move as a group.
Each logical subnet has one node serving as a landmark of that
subnet. The protocol requires that the landmark of each subnet
have the knowledge of all the members in its group. The protocol
deploys a routing scope at each node. The size of the scope is a
parameter measured in hop distance. It is chosen in such a way that
if a node is at the center of a subnet, the scope will cover the
majority of the subnet members. If the shape of a subnet is likely
to be a cycle, the center node's scope will cover all the members of
the subnet. If this center node is elected as a landmark, it
fulfills the requirement of the protocol.
LANMAR is supported by two complementary, cooperating routing
schemes: (a) a local, "myopic" routing scheme (operating within the
limited scope) that maintains routes to nearby destinations and;
(b) a "long haul" distance vector routing scheme that propagates
landmark information. An elected landmark uses a destination
sequence number to ensure its routing entry update loop-free. Thus,
Each node maintains a distance vector for landmarks of all the
subnets. The size of the landmark distance vector equals to the
number of logical subnets and thus landmark nodes.
When there are members drifting off their landmark's scope, the
landmark will create separate distance vector entries for them.
The distance vectors for landmarks and drifters are exchanged among
neighbors in periodical routing update messages.
As a result, in-scope destinations can be routed through accurate
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routes obtained from local routing table. A data packet directed
to a remote destination initially aims at the landmark of that
remote group; as it gets closer to the landmark, it may
eventually switch to the accurate route to the destination
provided by local host protocol at some nodes within the scope
of the destination.
5.2. Landmark Election
Dynamic election/re-election of landmark node is essential for
LANMAR to work in a wireless mobile environment. Basically, each
node tracks other nodes of its group in its scope and computes
weight, e.g. the number of the nodes it has found. At the
beginning of the LANMAR, no landmark exists. Protocol LANMAR
only uses the host protocol functionality. As host routing
computation progresses, one of the nodes will learn (from
the system routing table) that more than a certain number
of group members (say, T) are in its scope. It then proclaims
itself as a landmark for this group and adds itself to the landmark
distance vector. Landmarks broadcast the election weights to
the neighbors jointly with the landmark distance vector update
packets.
When more than one node declares itself as a landmark in the same
group, as the landmark information floods out, each node will
perform a winner competition procedure. Only one landmark for each
group will survive and it will be elected. To avoid flapping
between landmarks (very possible in a mobile situation), we may use
hysteresis in the replacement of an existing landmark. I.e., the
old Landmark is replaced by the new one only if its weight is, say
less than 1/2 of the weight of the current election winner. Once
ousted, the old leader needs the full weight superiority to be
reinstated.
This procedure is carried out periodically in the background.
At steady state, a landmark propagates its presence to all other
nodes like a sink in DSDV. It is extremely simple and it
converges (by definition). In a mobile environment, an elected
landmark may eventually lose its role. The role shifting is a
frequent event. In a transient period, there exist several
landmarks in a single group. The transient period may be actually
the norm at high mobility. This transient behavior can be
drastically reduced by using hysteresis.
When a landmark dies, its neighbors will detect the silence after
a given timeout period. A new round of landmark election will
then start from new qualified members and flood over the group.
5.3. Drifters
Typically, all members in a logical subnet are within the scope of
the landmark, thus the landmark has a route to all members. It may
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happen, however, that some of the members drift off the scope,
for example, a tank in a battalion may become stranded or lost.
To keep track of such drifters, i.e., to make the route to them
known to the landmark, the following modification to the routing
table exchange is necessary. Each node, say i, on the shortest
path between a landmark L and a drifter l associated with that
landmark keeps a distance vector entry to l. Note that if l is
within the scope of i, this entry is already included in the
routing table of node i. When i transmits its distance vector to
neighbor, say j, then j will retain the entry to member l only if
d(j,l) is smaller than the scope or d(j,L) is smaller than d(i,L).
The latter condition occurs if j is on the shortest path from i
(and therefore from l) to L. This way, a path is maintained from
the landmark to each of its members, including drifters. The
procedure starts from l, at the time when a node finds it becomes
a drifter. It informs the landmark hop by hop about its presence.
The occurrences of drifters are dynamic in a mobile network. In
order to timely remove the staled drifter information, the time
when a node hears a drifter is recorded. A node monitors whether
it becomes a drifter periodically and refreshes its occurrence
along the path towards the landmark.
6. Protocol Specifications
This section discusses the operation of LANMAR routing protocol.
The sending and receiving of landmark updates are in a proactive
nature. The routing packets are processed separately from
ordinary data packets.
6.1. Data Structures
Each node has a unique logical identifier defined by a subnet
field and a host field. The host field is unique in the subnet and
might in fact coincide with the physical address. The logical
identifier can also be an IP address when the subnet address
logically reflects the grouping of nodes.
As LANMAR runs on top of a host routing protocol, it shares the
routing table with the host protocol, i.e., both host protocol and
LANMAR contribute their portion to the system routing table.
LANMAR's routing table portion includes a landmark distance vector
(LMDV) and a drifter distance vector (DFDV).
In addition to the routing tables, each node has a landmark status
tuple. LANMAR does not maintain a separate neighbor list. Instead,
it interacts with the host protocol for possible table updates
caused by neighbor changes. In this draft, we only describe data
structures that pertain to LANMAR.
6.1.1. Landmark Status Tuple
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Each node has not only a logical identifier, which basically is
its address, but also a landmark status tuple. The tuple includes
a flag which indicates whether the node is a landmark or not, a
election weight (the number of group members the node detects within
its scope) and a sequence number. When a node is elected, the
status tuple will be copied to its landmark distance vector. The
sequence number is advanced. These are the three fields for a tuple:
- Landmark flag
- Weight: Number of group members in its scope
- Sequence number
6.1.2. Landmark Distance Vector
Landmark distance vector (LMDV) gives the next hop information to
all landmarks in the network. Every subnet has an entry in LMDV.
The latest route information to the landmark of each subnet is
learned when a landmark update message is received. LMDV functions
as a part of the routing table. It has the following fields:
- Landmark status tuple
- Next hop address
- Distance
- Last heard time
6.1.3. Drifter List
The drifter list (DFDV) of LANMAR provides the next hop information
to the drifters known to the current node. The entries are updated
with landmark update message. The latest time a drifter is heard
is recorded in DFDV. The DFDV works as a part of routing table.
It has the following fields:
- Destination drifter address
- Next hop address
- Distance
- Drifter sequence number
- Last heard time
6.2. LANMAR Update Message Format
There is only one message type of LANMAR protocol: LANMAR Update
(LMU). The messages are periodically exchanged with neighbors.
They update the landmark distance vector LMDV and the drifter
list DFDV. It is possible that LMDV or DFDV is empty, so no
entries of the empty table will be included. The processing of
the LMDV and DFDV will be describe separately. The following format
does not include the node's identifier because it can be obtained
from IP Header.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
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| Type | N_landmarks | N_drifters | Reserved |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Landmark Address 1 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Next Hop Address 1 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Distance 1 | N_members 1 | Sequence Number 1 :
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
: . . . :
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Drifter Address 1 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Next Hop Address 1 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Distance 1 | Drifter Sequence Number 1 | ... :
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
: . . . |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
6.2.1. Description of the fields
Type
This field indicates the packet type. Currently LANMAR only has
one packet type, i.e., LMU. The field is also needed to
distinguish LANMAR routing control packets from the host
protocol routing packets.
N_landmarks
The number of entries of the landmark distance vector.
N_drifters
The number of entries of the drifter list.
Reserved
The bits are set to '0' and are ignored on reception.
Landmark Address 1, Next Hop Address 1, Distance 1, N_members 1
and Sequence Number 1
The first entry in the landmark distance vector.
Landmark Address 1, N_members 1 and Sequence Number 1 are the
status tuple of the destination landmark.
Next Hop Address 1 and Distance 1 is the next hop and distance
to the landmark.
These fields are repeated N_landmarks times for each entry in
landmark distance vector.
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Drifter Address 1, Next Hop Address 1, Distance 1 and
Drifter Sequence Number 1
The first entry in the drifter list.
Next Hop Address 1 and Distance 1 are the next hop and distance
to the Drifter Address 1.
These fields are repeated N_drifters times for each entry in
the drifter list.
The length of the message is limited to the maximum IP packet size.
In that case, multiple packets may be required to broadcast all the
entries.
6.2.2. Propagation of LANMAR Update Messages
LANMAR update messages (LMUs) are propagated periodically. The
frequency could be set according to mobility. Propagation jitters
must be used for each message transmission to reduce collisions.
Before sending each LMU, a node first performs drifter
operations (described in Section 6.4.1) to check whether
it is a drifter. An existing drifter node increases its drifter
sequence number by 2. Then a node recalculates the current number
of group members within its scope from the system routing table.
The new number is recorded at the election weight field of its
landmark status tuple. And if it is a landmark, the corresponding
entry in the LMDV must be updated with this new weight. For a
landmark node, its sequence number must increase by 2 both in its
status tuple and in its LMDV entry. Then, LMDV will be searched
for stale entries. Operations are given in 6.3.4. DFDV will be
searched for stale entries too. Operations are given in 6.4.3.
Finally, the node assembles in the LMU its LMDV and DFDV.
6.3. Processing Landmark Updates
Landmark update information is a part of the LANMAR periodic
routing update message. The update information includes sender's
LMDV. Landmark update message is used for landmark election and
building paths to landmarks.
6.3.1. Originating a Landmark in a Subnet
Before propagating of each LMU, when a node obtains a new weight,
It will check if this number is greater than a threshold T. The
node qualifies as a landmark when one of the following conditions
is met.
(1) it is the only landmark for the group so far;
(2) the existing landmark has an infinite distance metric;
(3) it wins the election (see 6.3.3) when competing with the
existing landmark.
When the node becomes a landmark, it increases its sequence
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number by 2. Its current landmark status tuple will be inserted
into the LMDV or the existing landmark is replaced with the new
winner. This landmark entry will be broadcast to neighbors
with the next update packet.
6.3.2. Receiving Landmark Updates
When a node receives a landmark update message, it recalculates
the current number of group members within its scope from the
system routing table first. The new number is recorded at the
election weight field of its landmark status tuple. And if it is
a landmark, the corresponding entry in the LMDV must be updated
with this new weight. The node compares its LMDV entries with
the entries in the incoming LMDV message for each subnet.
There are three situations to consider:
(1) An incoming landmark entry corresponding to a new subnet
and its distance metric is less than infinity, the entry
will be copied.
(2) An incoming entry having the same landmark as an existing
one (in node's LMDV), it will be accepted only if one of
the following conditions is met.
(a) it contains a larger sequence number and the distance
metric is less than infinity;
(b) it contains a larger sequence number and the distance
metric equals to infinity and it happens to be the
next hop in the already existing entry;
(c) it has the same sequence number with the existing
entry, but a smaller distance metric.
(3) If an incoming entry contains a different landmark for
the same subnet as recorded in LMDV, only the landmark
that does not have an infinite distance and is elected
through a winner competition algorithm (see 6.3.3) is
accepted. The LMDV entry will be kept/updated according
to the outcomes of the competition.
During the processing of the current LMU, each inserted or updated
LMDV entry is stamped with receiving time in its "last heard time"
field. After a LMU is processed, the LMDV will be search for stale
entries. Operations are given in 6.3.4.
6.3.3. Winner Competition
When more than one node declares itself as a landmark in the same
group, a simple solution is to let the node with the largest
number of group members win the election and in case of tie,
lowest ID breaks the tie. The other competing nodes defer.
To use hysteresis in replacing an existing landmark, let us assume
the competing node's number of members is M, the existing
landmark's number of members is N and a factor value S. When M is
greater than N*S, then the competing node replaces the existing
landmark. Or, when N reduces to a value smaller than a threshold T,
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then it gives up the landmark role. A tie occurs when M falls
within an interval [N*1/S, N*S], then the node with a larger member
number wins the election. If a tie occurs again with equal member
number, i.e., M equals to N, it is broken using lowest ID. A tie
can always be broken using lowest ID as the address is used as ID
and it is unique.
6.3.4. Dealing with Stale LMDV Entries
Each entry in LMDV is time stamped of its last receiving time.
Every time before a LMU message is propagated or after a LMU is
processed, the LMDV table is checked for staled entries. If such
an entry is found, it must be marked an infinite distance metric
and the sequence number be increased by 1. Thus, the lost landmark
entry will overwrite the entries at downstream nodes. A new
elected landmark will replace the lost one.
6.4. Processing Drifter Updates
Drifter update information is a part of the LANMAR periodical
routing update message. The update information is the drifter list
(DFDV) of the sender. The computation of the DFDV at each node
includes checking the node itself to see whether it is a drifter
and recording paths to other drifters.
6.4.1. Originating a Drifter Entry
By checking the distance to the landmark of its group, each node
easily knows whether it has become a drifter. If the distance is
larger than the scope, the node will put itself into its drifter
list. This drifter information will be sent back to the landmark
hop by hop along the shortest path to it which can be learned from
the LMDV. For each drifter, only the node on its shortest path
to the landmark needs to receive its information, so before the
entry is broadcast, the drifter or the intermediate nodes
look for the next hop to drifter's landmark in their LMDVs first.
Then the next hop is included in LMU within the drifter entry.
Each drifter also maintains a drifter sequence number.
Each time a node finds itself a drifter, the sequence number
will be increased by 2. The DFDV will be propagated with the
next update packet.
6.4.2. Receiving Drifter Updates
Upon receiving an update packet, the DFDV part is retrieved and
processed. If an entry of incoming DFDV indicates that the current
node is its next hop to the landmark, i.e., the current node is on
the drifter's shortest path to the landmark, the current node will
insert or update its drifter list. The receiving time is stamped
in the DFDV. The node sending the update packet is recorded in
DFDV as the next hop to the drifter. The reverse path to the
drifter is thus built up. The procedure ends when the landmark
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receives the drifter entry. The updated DFDV will be propagated
with the next update packet.
6.4.3. Removing a Drifter Entry
Each entry in DFDV is time stamped of its last receiving time.
Every time before the DFDV is sent or routing by DFDV is needed,
the table is checked for staled entries. If such an entry is found,
it is removed.
6.5. Operations Regarding to Lost Neighbors
When a lost neighbor is reported by the host protocol (the host
protocol may discover by checking staled entries in a neighbor
list or by receiving a feedback from the MAC layer protocol),
LMDV and DFDV will be searched. If the lost neighbor happens
to be the next hop to a landmark, the corresponding table entry
in LMDV must be marked an infinite distance metric and the
sequence number be increased by 1. Thus, the new link break
information will overwrite the entries at downstream nodes.
Till the landmark propagates the next new update message with
a sequence number increased by 2, new routes will build up.
If the lost neighbor happens to be the next hop to a drifter,
the corresponding table entry in DFDV is removed.
7. Data Packet Forwarding
Data packets are relayed hop by hop. Each node's system routing
table contains routing entries from the host protocol's
routing table (called local routing table), drifter distance
vector and landmark distance vector. The tables are looked up
sequentially for the destination entry. If the destination is
within a node's scope, the entry can be found directly in the
local routing table and the packet is forwarded to
the next hop node. Otherwise, the drifter list DFDV is
searched for the destination. If the entry is found, the
packet is forwarded using the next hop address from DFDV.
If not, the logical subnet field of the destination is retrieved
and the LMDV entry of the landmark corresponding to the
destination's logical subnet is searched. If the distance
metric is not an infinity, the data packet is then routed
towards the landmark using the next hop address from LMDV.
If all these attempts are failed, the data packet is dropped.
When the data packet is routed towards a landmark, it is not
necessary for the packet to pass through the landmark. Rather,
once the packet gets within the scope of the destination on
its way towards the landmark, it is routed to the destination
directly.
8. Combining LANMAR with a Host Protocol
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Current LANMAR and a host protocol have separate data structures,
separate timers and separate routing messages, resulting in
LANMAR interfering little with the local routing information.
However, they may still have correlation when they work together.
Operations needed for combination are listed and explained in
this section.
8.1. Share Neighbor Information
As LANMAR does not maintain a neighbor table, it may share
information about neighbors with the host protocol.
8.1.1. Inform the Host Protocol about a Neighbor
When a node receives a landmark update, LANMAR may inform the host
protocol about the sender in case the sender is a new comer. The
host protocol, if a neighbor table is maintained, may update its
neighbor table accordingly.
8.1.2. Being Informed about a Lost Neighbor
LANMAR may accept the notification from a host protocol regarding
to the loss of a neighbor, which leads to a search and possible
updating in LMDV and DFDV (see section 6.5).
8.2. Scoped Routing Operations
8.2.1. Destination-sequenced Distance Vector routing protocol
Distance Vector type routing protocols use smaller routing
tables (comparing to Link State type) and generate lower
routing overhead. Destination-sequenced Distance Vector
Routing (DSDV) [3] uses destination sequenced sequence numbers
to prevent the forming of loops. The protocol can work
together with LANMAR. The modifications include containing
only the destinations within the local scope in the periodic
routing update messages and turning off the triggered updates.
8.2.2. Fisheye State Routing protocol
Fisheye State Routing (FSR) [7][8] is easy to adapt to a host
protocol. A two level Fisheye scope is used when FSR is used
as a host protocol. For nodes within the scope, the updating
is in a certain frequency. But for nodes beyond the scope,
the update frequency is reduced to zero. As a result,
each node maintains accurate routing information for in-scope
nodes.
8.2.3. Optimized Link State Routing protocol
Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) [9] provides the facility
for scope-limited flooding of messages. The generic message
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format contains a Time To Live field, which gives the maximum
number of hops that a message will travel. Each time a message
is retransmitted, the Time To Live field is decreased by 1.
When the value of this field is reduced to zero, the massage
will not be forwarded any more.
OLSR can be one of the underlying protocol of LANMAR. The
Time To Live field is set to the scope defined in LANMAR
when a message is originated.
8.2.4. Topology Broadcast Based on Reverse-Path Forwarding
Topology Broadcast Based on Reverse-Path Forwarding (TBRPF) [10]
can be adapted to scoped routing operations as easy as that
when constructing the "reportable node set" RN, only the nodes
that are within scope are included. The source tree so built up
at a node will reach only up to a limited hop distance. To achieve
this, the hop distance should be one of the link metrics.
9. Implementation Status
LANMAR version 1 (according to version 3 of the draft, but
excluding the drifter operations) has been implemented in Linux
and is in use for laboratory experiments.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by NSF under contract ANI-9814675,
by DARPA under contract DAAB07-97-C-D321, and by ONR under
contract N00014-01-C-0016.
References
[1] G. Pei, M. Gerla and X. Hong, LANMAR: Landmark Routing for
Large Scale Wireless Ad Hoc Networks with Group Mobility,
Proceedings of IEEE/ACM MobiHOC 2000, Boston, MA, Aug. 2000.
[2] M. Gerla, X. Hong, G. Pei, Landmark Routing for Large Ad Hoc
Wireless Networks, Proceedings of IEEE GLOBECOM 2000,
San Francisco, CA, Nov. 2000.
[3] C.E. Perkins and P. Bhagwat, Highly Dynamic Destination-
Sequenced Distance-Vector Routing (DSDV) for Mobile Computers,
In Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM'94, London, UK, Sep. 1994,
pp. 234-244.
[4] UCLA Wireless Adaptive Mobility (WAM) Laboratory.
http://www.cs.ucla.edu/NRL/wireless
Gerla, Hong, Ma and Pei [Page 19]
INTERNET-DRAFT Landmark Routing Protocol November 17, 2002
[5] S. Bradner. Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels. RFC 2119, March 1997.
[6] P. F. Tsuchiya, The Landmark Hierarchy: a new hierarchy for
routing in very large networks, Computer Communication Review,
vol.18, no.4, Aug. 1988, pp. 35-42.
[7] G. Pei, M. Gerla, and T.-W. Chen, Fisheye State Routing:
A Routing Scheme for Ad Hoc Wireless Networks, Proceedings of
ICC 2000, New Orleans, LA, Jun. 2000.
[8] G. Pei, M. Gerla, and T.-W. Chen, Fisheye State Routing in
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Proceedings of Workshop on Wireless
Networks and Mobile Computing, Taipei, Taiwan, Apr. 2000.
[9] P. Jacquet, P. Muhlethaler, A. Qayyum, A. Laouiti, L. Viennot
and T. Clausen, Optimized Link State Routing Protocol, Internet
Draft, IETF MANET Working Group, draft-ietf-manet-olsr-04.txt,
Mar. 2002.
[10] R. G. Ogier, F. L. Templin, B. Bellur, M. G. Lewis, Topology
Broadcast Based on Reverse-Path Forwarding (TBRPF), Internet Draft,
IETF MANET Working Group, draft-ietf-manet-tbrpf-05.txt, Mar. 2002.
Chair's Address
The MANET Working Group can be contacted via its current chairs:
M. Scott Corson
Flarion Technologies, Inc.
Bedminster One
135 Route 202/206 South
Bedminster, NJ 07921
USA
Phone: +1 908 947-7033
Email: corson@flarion.com
Joseph Macker
Information Technology Division
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington, DC 20375
USA
Phone: +1 202 767-2001
Email: macker@itd.nrl.navy.mil
Authors' Addresses
Gerla, Hong, Ma and Pei [Page 20]
INTERNET-DRAFT Landmark Routing Protocol November 17, 2002
Questions about this document can also be directed to the authors:
Mario Gerla
3732F Boelter Hall
Computer Science Department
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1596
USA
Phone: +1 310 825-4367
Fax: +1 310 825-7578
Email: gerla@cs.ucla.edu
Xiaoyan Hong
3803F Boelter Hall
Computer Science Department
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1596
USA
Phone: +1 310 825-4623
Fax: +1 310 825-7578
Email: hxy@cs.ucla.edu
Li Ma
3803D Boelter Hall
Computer Science Department
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1596
USA
Phone: +1 310 825-1888
Fax: +1 310 825-7578
Email: mary@cs.ucla.edu
Guangyu Pei
Rockwell Scientific Company
1049 Camino Dos Rios
P.O. Box 1085
Thousand Oaks, CA 91358-0085
USA
Phone: +1 805 373-4639
Fax: +1 805 373-4383
Email: gpei@rwsc.com
Gerla, Hong, Ma and Pei [Page 21]