New Multipath OLSR Protocol Version for Heterogeneous Ad Hoc Networks

From a basic refrigerator to a self-driving car, emerging technologies are increasingly involving various facets of our daily lives. These bring together many regularly used devices, each with its own characteristics, to communicate and collaborate within the same system. Computer network experts regard this so-called structure as a heterogeneous network made up of several connected objects that do not speak the same language. Communication is therefore ensured by additional types of nodes, such as gateways or converters. In this case, we can detect an increased complexity and a decreased level of security. And thus, the need to adopt a common slang for these kinds of networks has been brought to life. In this work, we compare two different routing protocols: optimized link-state routing (OLSR) and the multipath heterogeneous ad hoc network OLSR (MHAR-OLSR). The latter is an OLSR extension with new functionalities: nodes identification, paths calculation, paths classification, and paths choice that we designed for heterogeneous ad hoc networks composed of MANET, VANET, and FANET devices; it ensures direct communication between these diverse components. We verify and explain all the elements of our solution using colored Petri nets. We also present a global evaluation of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), End-To-End Delay, and energy consumption as QoS measures with different numbers of nodes in a heterogeneous scenario. To do this, we use NS-3 and BonnMotion as a tool-set of simulation. Experimental results show improvement in performance when compared to the classical routing protocol. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.