Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: Energy-Efficient Real-Time Data Communications

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is an autonomous system of mobile nodes connected by wireless links to form a communication network. The challenge in the design of protocol architectures for MANETs is to provide a certain level of Quality of Service (QoS) in information transfer using the limited network resources, namely energy and bandwidth. This design goal is further constrained by the unreliable physical channel, the mobility of the nodes, and the lack of infrastructure for network coordination. To meet the QoS requirements for real-time data communication, some coordination of the channel is needed, but centralized coordination is not feasible in MANETs.