The first bells are already tolling! The time of mobile ad-hoc networks is coming. The Austrian online newspaper Kleine Zeitung reports about a Swedish compony TerraNet that currently works hard on practical realisation of Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN). Ericsson has invested already about 4 mio Euros in this project. Mesh networks are a subtype of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks that (more…)

What does make routing and communication in Ad Hoc Networks different from routing and communication in usual LANs, WANs etc.? The main peculiarities are the absence of wires, routers and any predefined infrastructure. The nodes communicate with each other over the air and this is a very unreliable medium. Because of reflection, diffraction, diffusion and other signal propogation properties the data exchanging by nodes is frequently lost. Besides the connections between nodes can break because the nodes move and this changes then the topology of the network. (more…)

First of all let’s give a definition of what a Mobile Ad Hoc Network is. It is a collection of mobile nodes, such devices as PDAs, mobile phones, laptops etc., that are connected over a wireless medium. There is no pre-existing communication infrastructure (no access points, no base stations) and the nodes can freely move and self-organize into a network topology. (more…)

It seems like the fate of my diploma thesis has cleared up at last. More then two months I was looking for the firm and for the project for my last step on the ladder of my study. Ad Hoc Networks excited me during all the years at the university. Quite unexpectedly I found out that our colleagues in Berlin at Fraunhofer FOKUS (Fraunhofer Institut for Open Communication Systems) do research on all the kinds of ad hoc networks. (more…)