Dynamic IP address auto-configuration in MANETs

Abstract

Addressing in MANET's is of significance importance, as a mobile device cannot participate in unicast communications until it is assigned a conflict-free IP address. Allocating addresses to mobile nodes is a fundamental and difficult problem. Unlike infrastructure based networks, MANET's support autonomous and spontaneous networking and therefore, should be capable of self-organization and self-configuration. We present a new IP based address allocation protocol for MANET's based on MAC Addresses, Nonce and Duplicate Address Detection Scheme. Each node in the network is capable of assigning a unique IP address. Addresses are reclaimed automatically, as the mobile nodes leaves the network. Our approach also has support for network merging and partitioning. The proposed scheme has low communication overhead, even address distribution when applied to large scale MANET's. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.