Comparison-based system-level fault diagnosis protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks: A survey

Fault diagnosis is crucial for the successful deployment and operation of mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). Comparison-based fault diagnosis is a practical approach to identify the status of nodes based on tasks they execute. This approach has been applied for MANETs by Chessa and Santi. Their model exploits the nature of shared communication in ad-hoc networks to enhance the efficiency of the diagnosis process. In this article, we present a survey on comparison-based system-level fault diagnosis protocols applied for MANETs. After fault classification, we focus on classifying the protocols considering their dissemination mechanisms into three categories namely: flooding-based, spanning-tree-based, and clustering-based protocols. We provide a qualitative comparison among various protocols in terms of algorithm execution behaviors, complexity, experimental outcomes, and scalability. In addition, we reveal the capacity of each protocol under practical MANET scenarios. We then conclude the survey discussing several research issues open for further investigation.