Hash caching mechanism in source-based routing for wireless ad hoc networks

In mobile ad hoc network (MANET), on-demand routing protocols are proposed for establishing a route in a distributed manner only when a source host originates a data packet addressed to the destination host. In source-based routing (SBR) protocols, route discovery usually raises a large number of request packets for exploring the current state of the network, but it also performs the collection of useful information for future routing decisions. How to store and manage this collected information in the limited size of cache in order to improve routing performance is still an open issue in the development of an SBR scheme. This paper proposes a novel hash caching mechanism and distributed hashing routing methods to store, utilize, and manage the cached routes in order to improve cache capacity, routing performance, and network throughput. The experimental results indicate that the proposed mechanism offers high cache capacity, efficient route discovery, and good throughput for the MANET.