A Mobile Radii0 Network Architecture with Dynamically C
Topology Using Virtual Siubnets
J a c o b Sharony
Hnzcltine C o r p o r a t i o n
G r e e n l a w n , NY 11740
sharony@hazeltinc.com
Abstract
A n architecture adaptable t o d y n a m i c topology chan!ges i n m u l t i -
h o p mobile radio networks i s described. T h e architscture parti-
t i o n s a mobile network i n t o logically independenl subnetworks.
N e t w o r k n o d e s a,re m e m b e r s of physical and virturxl siibriets a n d
m a y c h a n g e t h e i r a f i l i a t i o n with these subnets d u e t o t h e i r mo-
bility. E a c h node as allocated an address based oii ats c u r r e n t
s u b n e t a f i l i a t i o n . We obserae ~ especially in large rielworks
with random topology - that partitioning of t h e netuiork m a y re-
sult in significantly m o r e balanced load t h a n i r i o n e large multi-
h o p n e t w o r k , a n attribute t h a t c a n significantly im,pi.ove t h e n e t -
work’s p e r f o r m a n c e . T h e architecture is hi,yhly fault-tolerant,
has a relatively simple location updating a n d tracking s c h e m e ,
a n d by virtue of its load balancing feature, typicnlly achieves
a network with relatively high throughput arid low delay. T h e
addressing m e t h o d , logical topology, mobility m a n a g e m e n t a n d
routing procedure are described, u n d network p e r f o r m a n c e i s
evaluated.
1 Introduction
Mobile radio networks are expected to play an important role in
future commercial and military applications, especially where
a wired backbone network is not accessible or does not exist.
/1,hese networks are suitable in situations where instant infras-
tructure is needed and no central system administIration (like
base stmationsin a cellular system) is available. Typical appli-
cations for this type of peer-to-peer networks include: mobile
computing in remote areas, tactical communications, law en-
forcement operations and disaster recovery situations. A peer-
to-peer mobile radio network consists of a collection of mobile
packet radio nodes t h a t create a network on demand without
administrative support and may communicate with each other
via intermediate nodes in a multi-hop mode, i.e., every node is
a router. A critical issue in these networks is their ability t o
adapt well t o dynamic topology changes ca.used by movement
of nodes relative t o other nodes in the network. Aclaptation t o
topology changes requires changes both in channel assignment
and routing.
Previous work on mobile radio networks with dynamically
changing topology concentra.ted primarily on channel access
and routing schemes in arbitrary physical topologies [I] -. [6]. To
improve network performance and reliability, several methods
of topology control (by adjusting transmission ranges) were pro-
posed [ 7 ] - [lo]. More recently, a multi-cluster architecture for
0-7803-3250-4/96$5.00O1996 IEEE
807
multi-hop mobille radio networks supporting multimedia traffic
was proposed [ I l l .
T h e motivation behind our approach is t h a t network par-
titioning can improve critical functions such as media access,
routing, mobility management and virtual circuit set-up, while
rcducing sigrialiog/control overhead. It can be observed in this
type of network t h a t partitioning may result also in lower con-
gestion compared t o one large network.
‘l’his paper discusses an architecture based on a specific logi-
cal topology superimposed over a physical topology (determined
by transmission coverage of network nodes); the architecture se-
lect,~ links t o be activated (logical links) out of a pool of physical
links. Our main concern is finding an efficient logical topology
and a suitable routing procedure which result in high perfor-
mance and reliability.
T h e paper describes an architecture suitable for mobile ra-
dio networks wliich is adaptable t o dynamic topology changes
due to node mobility. In this architecture, network nodes are
grouped into two types of clusters (subnets): p.hysica1 and vir-
tual, and may dynamically change their a.ffiliation with these
subnets due to their mobility. Each node is allocated an address
based on its current subnet affiliation. We consider networks
t h a t have several t,ens t o several thousands mobile nodes. It
is assumed t h a t there exists a channel access protocol which
resolves content.ions and/or interference in the network (e.g.,
i121, i131).
T h e rest of t:he paper is organized as follows. Section 2 de-
scribes the addressing method. Section 3 describes the network
logical topology, explaining the formation of physical and vir-
tual subnets. Section 4 discusses mobility management and
Section 5 considers the routing procedure. Section 6 discusses
performance issues, and conclusions are given in Section 7.
2 Addresising method
In this method, network nodes are allocated addresses depend-
ing on their current physical connectivity. Assurne t h a t the net-
work is segmented into p physical subnets (the distinction be-
tween physical and virtual will be clarified shortly; for the mo-
ment assume t h a t physical subnets cover a local area) each con-
taining u p t o q mobile nodes. We describe the pool of addresses
over an alphabet of size m = max(p, q ) containing the numbers
0 , 1 , 2 , . . . m - 1. Each node in the network is given a word (ad-
dress) of length two, where the list significant digit (LSD) is a
digit in base-q and the most significant digit (MSD) is a digit
in base-p. Therefore, the total number of words (and nodes)

Figure 1: Physical and virtual subnets in a mobile radio net-
work.
possible is N = p q . Each node in this topology is affiliated
with nodes whose address differs only in one digit; t h a t is, node
~ 1 . is
~ 0affiliated with nodes Z I . Z ~0, 5 X; 5 q - l , z ; # 2 0 ,
and with nodes 3c;.zo, 0 5 xi 5 p - 1,xi # 2 1 . T h u s , every
node is affiliated with p + q - 2 other nodes; we say t h a t each
+
node has p q - 2 logical neighbors. Next we group every q
nodes t h a t differ only in their LSD into an MSD group, and
every p nodes t h a t differ only in their MSD into an LSD group.
+
Note t h a t there are altogether p q groups, and each node is a
member of one LSD group and one MSD group. These groups
are the basic building blocks of the network as described in the
next section.
3 Logical topology
Each node in the network is affiliated with a physical subnet
(MSD group) and a virtual subnet (LSD group). Nodes which
are members of a physical subnet are within close proximity in
a local geographic area. Nodes which are members of a vir-
tual subnet form a regional network (i.e., beyond a local area).
Figure 1 depicts a mobile radio network with physical subnets
(in shaded areas) and virtual subnets (e.g., in solid and dashed
lines). Note t h a t all nodes within a physical subnet have the
same MSD while all nodes within a virtual subnet have the
same LSD. I t is assumed for the moment t h a t nodes of a given
physical subnet can reach (e.g., by adjusting their transmission
power or by using a directional antenna) nodes of neighboring
physical subnets. Later we deal with the case when this as-
sumption does not hold (i.e., when a node is disconnected from
its virtual subnet).
A node becomes a member of a physical subnet by acquiring
the first available address (with the lowest LSD) in t h a t subnet,
e.g., if a node joins physical subnet 1 2 and there are already
10 members in this subnet it will use the address 12.10 since
LSD’s 0-9 are occupied already. Once a node becomes affili-
ated with a specific physical subnet, automatically it becomes
a member of a virtual subnet defined by the LSD in its address;
referring t o t h e above example, the node will be a member in
virtual subnet 10. As long as the node remains in t h e vicin-
808
ity of physical subnet 1 2 (i.e., within “hearing” distance from
its members) it will keep its current address. Any node in the
network is updated with the current addresses used in its phys-
ical and virtual subnets (by its logical neighbors). This can be
accomplished, e.g., by an advertising process where each node
notifies its logical neighbors of its current address using a ded-
icated management channel. Therefore, a node which desires
to join a specific physical subnet would contact a member(s) of
this physical subnet t o find out which address it can acquire,
and then would advertise its newly acquired address t o all of
its logical neighbors. Note t h a t if a node cannot reach any of
its logical neighbors in its virtual subnet,, it will use another
virtual subnet via one of its logical neighbors in its physical
subnet. This case will be further discussed in Section 5 dealing
with routing.
Observe t h a t there is no logical connection between the vir-
tual subnets, however, since they are “overlaid” on t h e same
region they might interfere with each other. Thik interference
is eliminated by the channel access scheme in use. One way,
for example, is t o operate each virtual subnet on a different fre-
quency channel(s); when the number of frequency channels is
less than the number of virtual subnets some form of time shar-
ing can be used. Note t h a t a less acute problem exists between
neighboring physical subnets which have a limited degree of
overlapping since each one of them covers a limited area. Thus,
one can take advantage of spatial reuse, where only neighboring
(overlapping) subnets use different frequency channels.
4 Mobility management
A mobile node which changed its subnet affiliation will notify
all the nodes in its new physical and virtual subnets (i.e., its
current logical neighbors) of its newly acquired address. This
notification process can take place, e.g., during the establish-
ment of links with its logical neighbors or by broadcasting in
its physical and virtual subnets. In general, a source node does
not know the current address of a desired destination node.
T h e source node can determine this address by inquiring in its
physical (virtual) subnet, since one of the nodes there is affil-
iated with the destination node virtual (physical) subnet. T o
clarify, let source node S and destination node D addresses be
SI.SOand Dl.Do, respectively, and denote by IS1I the cardinal-
ity (number of members) of physical subnet SI.Consider two
different cases for finding node D’s address; first, if ]Si( 2 Do,
node S would inquire in its physical subnet SI about node D
and receives node D’s address from node 5’1 .Do (which was no-
tified earlier by node D , via virtual subnet Do, regarding its
current address). Second, if I S11 < D O ,node S would inquire
in virtual subnet SO about node D and receives node D’s ad-
dress from node D1 .SOwhich is affiliated with node D physical
subnet. Note t h a t node S does not know a-priori which of the
above cases is valid, nevertheless, it inquires about node D first
in its physical subnet and if it does not get a response it inquires
in its virtual subnet ( a t least one of node S logical neighbors
knows node D’s address). Alternatively (instead of inquiring
about node D’s address), node S can broadcast its packets for
node D in its physical and virtual subnets, a t least one node
(which is a logical neighbor of node D ) will be able t o forward
the packets t o their destination.
Figure 2 describes a simplified location updating and track-
 loc-track
FH -fixed host {3.3) example: 3.3
{LN-FH} - logical neighbors of the fixed host {3.0,3.1,3.2,0.3,1.3,2.3)
{LN-FIM} - logical neighbors of both the fixed and mobile hosts {1.3,3.1)
{LN-MH} - logical neighbors of the mobile host {1.0,1.2,1.3,0.1,21,3.1}
MH - mobile host {1.1)
Figure 2: Location updating and tracking scheme.
ing scheme. After moving t o a new location a mobile host
(MH) notifies its logical neighbors by sending a location up-
d a t e (loc-update). A fixed host (FH) which desires t o com-
municate with MH will inquire a t its logical neighbors about
MH by sending a location inquiry (loc-inquiry). At least one of
FH’s logical neighbors is also MH’s logical neighbor, thus, one
of their mutual logical neighbors will provide F B with MH’s
address by sending loc-track. After tracking down MH’s ad-
dress, F H sends its d a t a t o MH via one of their mutual logical
neighbors. Figure 2 shows also through a specific example in a
16-node network ( p = p = 4) the nodes involved in the above
process. Note t h a t this location updating and tracking scheme
involves only p +
q - 2 nodes which is much less than N ; this
results in reduced signaling/control overhead. For example, in
a 400-node network with p = 16, q = 25, the location updat-
ing/tracking process involves less than 10% of the nodes in the
network. Therefore] in the case of multi-hop subnets a flooding
scheme can be used (assuming a contentionless access scheme,
e.g., TDMA-FDMA) in the corresponding physical and virtual
subnets, to broadcast the loc-update and loc-inquiry messages
without overloading the whole network.
5 Routing
Several routing schemes are possible; we describe a shortest
path routing procedure which is self-routing. We assume first
the case of one-hop physical/virtual subnets. In this procedure
routes traverse one digit a t a time in fixed order, e.g., from the
LSD t o the MSD. For example, when the source-node address is
12.15 and the destination-node address is 9.17, this procedure
would use the path 12.15 i 12.17 --i 9.17. Generally, the
route from source-node address u1 .UO t o destinat ion-node ad-
dress 7 ~ 1 . 7 ~ 0would traverse the path ~ 1 . +
~ 0 ~ 1 . ~ 0 7 ~ 1 . ~ 0
(see Figure 3 ) . T h e length of the path equals the number of
different digits in the addresses of the source and destination
nodes, i.e., a t most two hops. In the above proce’dure there is
a unique path between any two nodes.
In general, the network is composed of multi-hop subnets
which means t h a t more than two hops are necessary from source
to destination. In this case the routing is performed in two
phases. In the first phase (Phase I) routing is performed only
I
I
- 3.1- 1.I
Figure 3: Shortest path routing for the case of one-hop physi-
cal/virtual subnets; physical - virtual.
in the physical subnets (exchanging local traffic). Here pack-
ets are routed (e.g., using shortest path) within the physical
subnet of the :source node from t h e source node via interme-
diate nodes t o a node having the same LSD as the destina-
tion node. In the second phase (Phase 11) packets are routed
in the virtual subnet, where packets reached to the last node
in the first phase are routed from this node to the destina-
tion node via intermediate nodes within t’he virtual subnet de-
fined by the LiSD of the destination node. Preferably, during
Phase I transmission power is limited t o cover only the local
area of the corresponding physical subnet; this would allow
frequency reuse due t o spatial separation. In Phase I1 (when
virtual subnets are formed) transmission coverage is adjusted
(e.g., by using a directional antenna) to reach remote phys-
ical subnets. Referring t o Figure 1, the route from source
node 12.15 t o destination node 9.17 would traverse the path
12.15 + 12.10 + 12.17 + 11.17 + 8.17 -+9.17, with
two hops in physical subnet 12 and three hops in virtual sub-
net 17. Note though, t h a t in case a node cannot reach any of
its logical neighbors in its virtual subnet (i.e., when the virtual
subnet is not connected) it will have to use a different virtual
subnet via one of its logical neighbors in its ]physical subnet.
For example, say t h a t node A . B would like to communicate
with node C.L); using shortest path routing the path would
usually traverse via physical subnet A t o node A.D and then
via virtual sub’net D t o node C.D. However, if node A.D is
not connected t o virtual subnet D it will connect to another
node (say A.E)t via physical subnet A and then via virtual sub-
net E to node C.E and finally t o the destination node C.D via
physical subnet C as indicated in the following,
A.B -i ... ---i A.D i . . . -+ A .E i
+ C.E . . . * (7.0
- alternatively, the fault-tolerant routing scheme described bellow
can be used to overcome situations of disconnected subnets.
Finally, we mention here another self-routing scheme (called
Long-path routing) which results in high fault tolerance (see
Subsection 6.2). In this procedure the longest path has three
hops (assuming one-hop physical/virtual subnets). Referring
-
path ~ 1 . ~-+ 0 u1.u; i
~ 1 . ~ 0 u:.uo
7~l.u; --
to Figure 4, the route from ~ 1 . t~o 0vl.zt0 would traverse the
~ 1 . ~(Figure
0 4(a)), or
u:.vo * VI.WO (Figure 4(b)), where
0 5 U ; 5 y - 1 , u ; # uo and 0 5 U ; 5 p - 1 , u ; # u1. Note
809
 L1 total number of liiiks activated in t h e physical subnets
during Phase I.

L2 ~ total number of links act,ivated in the virtual subnets dur-

ing Phase 11.

7' - load of link i in on? large mnlti-hop network, i.e., t,he num-
ber of times link i is traversed by all possible N ( N - 1)
paths in t,he network.

r/i load of link J in its physical subnet., i.e., t,lie number of

times link is traversed by all possible y( q 1) paths in
~

its physical subnet.

71; ~~ load of link k in its virtual subnet, i.e., the number of

Figure 4: Long-path routing for the case of one-hop physi- times link k is traversrd by all possible p ( p - 1) paths in
cal/virt,iial snhnets; ( a ) physical virtual physical, (b) viri,ual
~ -
it,s virtual subnet.
- physical virt,ual. -
maximum link-load in one large multi-hop network (i.e.,
maxl(q')).

that, each r o u t e traverses alt,ernately physical and virt,iial sill>- 711 maximum link-load during Phase I (i.e.. m a x J ( q i ) ) ,
nets. It can be shown t h a t between each source-dest#inationpair
+
there are p (I - 2 disjoint paths, i.e., paths t h a t do not share 772 ~ masirnuin link-load during Phase I1 (i.e.? maxk(y;))
links or nodes (e.g., for p = (I = fl the number of disjoint
It is assumed t h a t traffic is homogeneous, where each node
paths is O(fl)). Each of these paths corresponds t o one of in the network sends X packets/sec t,o any of t,lie other N - 1
+
the p Q - 2 logical rieighbors of the source riode. Note that, a nodes. 'ro simplify the presentation, w e use an M / M / 1 queue-
pat,h is uniquely specified oncr a logical neighbor was srlected ing model to drscribe t,he behavior of each act,ivat,edlink; there-
by t h e source node. T o route a packet from a source node t o fore, the average delay of a packet traversing link IC is given by
a destination riode, the source node selects (say at random) b k = F-, where l / p is t,he average packet length in bits,
one of tlie p +
q - 2 disjoint, paths. In case of i t path failure,
c k is the link capacity in bitslsec and q k is the link load. Note
t h e source node can select (say raridonily) one of the remaining
that if a more accurat,c model for the link behavior is used it.
disjoint paths.
will only result in a different expression for 612. Using Little's
formula a n d suninling over all the activated links iri the net-
6 Performance work, the average queueing delay across t h r net,work is givcn
by
Network p e r f o r m m m in terms of throughput and fault toler
ance is evaluated. We compare the throughput of the network
t o t h a t of a one large multi-hop network

6.1 Throughput
We assume i,liat i i i each multi-hop subnet ii link activation
T D M A - F D M h (multiple frequency channels per subnet are
possible) access scheme is usecl where each link is activatecl Kote that tlie capacity of the links is inversely proportional
at, lrast~once during each t,irne frame. We furtlier a.ssume t h a t

*
t.0 the riurnber of time slots ( i n t h e corresponding phase) which
the above shortest-path routing is used (i.e.. any path traverses depends on t8henurnbrr of freqiiency channels used. T h e maxi-
a t most, two subnets. one physical and one virtual). The anal- mnm traffic between any t,wo nodes during phase I is X I =
ysis in this siibsection is t,riie foi- any roiit.ing procedurr w t t h s n similarly. the maximum t,raffic twt,wprn any two nodes during
t h e mult,i-hop subnets. In t,he following aualvsis we i i s r t,hrse
notations:
phase I1 is A-, = w. 'I'hrrefore, the maximum t.raffic be-
twren a n y t w o nodes in t,hc network is
R - bit rate of each transmitting node.
cy - portion of time frame usecl in Phase I (for int,ra-sribriet
traffic).
T h e normalized network throughput is giveii by
T - number of time-slots rised in one large multi-hop network.
Y ( N - 1)
TI- number of time-clots usecl in Phase I.
r = X(A - 1)-,,,A, -
~

(3)
ILR Ti11i~+ r l ; ~ 2 ~

'1)L - niimbrr of t,inie-slot,s i i s e d in I'hase II Kote t,hat r / ~ and 712 depend on the logical t,opology and t,he
I, ~ total number of links activated in one large multi-hop net- routing procedure usecl within the subnets.
work.

81 0
 Figure 5: 16-node network with a well controlled 1 opology. Figure 6: Links activated in the physical subnets.

We are interested in comparing the tliroughput prrformance

of the proposed architecture and t h a t of a one large multi-hop
radio network. First, we find the t,hronghput of t h e one large
network. In a similar way to the above, t h e queueing delay
across one large multi-hop network is given by

Figure 7: Links activated in the virtiial subnets

thus, the throughput of one large multi-hop network is given
by
than three frequencies are required to achieve the maximum
N(N - I) throngliput of the one large network, i.e., adding more frequen-
r' = (5)
7-17 cies will not increase t h e throughput. This is because of t h e
limited transmission range of t h e nodes, taking advantage of
T h e throughput values for the proposed architectwe ( 3 ) and
spatial reuse. Ilowever, in t h e proposed network it is pos-
for one large multi-hop network (5) depend strongly on the
physical and logical topologies, routing procedure a n ( i the num- sible t o further increase t h e throughput by adding more fre-
quencies (up t o eight frequencies). Qbserv'e t h a t t h e average
ber of frequencies. We observed especially in larg'e networks
~

arid rnaxinium link loading in t h e one large multi-hop network

with random topology ( a characteristic of ad-hoc splxadic net-
works) - t h a t the maximum link traffic-load in one large net- is 8.33 and 16, respectively, while for the network using four
virtual subnets the corresponding values axe identical - 8.0,
work is significantly higher than the maximum link traffic-load
i.e., t h e network has a balanced load. T h e average and maxi-
i n t h e subnets, i.e., 11 >> p q l , q q 2 . Therefore, partitioning of the
mum number of hops in t h e one large network is 2.29 and 6.0,
network may reduce congestion in the network which in effpct
respectively, while for t h e network using four virtual subnets
can improve the performance, e.g., results in higher throughput,
t h e corresponding values are 2.13 and 4.0.
lower delay. Note t h a t there is a penalty associated with large
transmission radii resulting in reduced link capacitips (because
more time-slots are needed). However, since t h e link loading 6.2 Fault - tollerance
ma.y be significantly reduced, the total effect may result in in- To evaluat,e the fault-t,olerance of the architecture we use two
creased throughput. Also, while one large rnulti-hclp network rnetrics, node connectivity and link connectivity. We define
cannot take advantage of many frequencies (if available) be-
cause of spatial reuse, the current architecture can ( t o separat>e
the overlayed virtual subnets), which also results ill increased 16-node network
5.0
tlrroiighpii t .
T h e following example of a 16-node network illustrates the
st,rength of the proposed architecture. Figure 5 depicts a net-
work with a well coiit,rollcd topology of maximum degree six
--I
composed of equilateral triangles. According to t h c proposed
architecture the network may be partitioned into four physical
and four virtual subnets (11 = y = 4 ) . Figure 6 ai181 Figure 7
show the links activated in tjhe physical and virtual subnets,
respectivcly.
Using TDMX-FDMA link-activabion assignrnent~and short-
est p a t h routing, we find the throughput prrformaric-r for oiic
large multi-hop network and for a rictwork using four virtual
subiiets (depicted in Figurr 8). For this particulai- example, Number of frequency channels
one c a n scc t,hat for a given number of frequencies tlic pro-
posed architecture always has a better throughput performance Figurr 8 Throughput performance for one large multi-hop net-
than the one large multi-hop network. Note t h a t not more work and for a network using four virtual subnets.

81 1
 architecture is highly fault-tolerant, has a relatively simple lo-
there are six disjoint paths between cation updating and tracking scheme, and by virtue of its load
nodes 1.3 and 3.2
balancing feature, typically achieves a network with relatively
1 3 ---> 1 0 ---> 3 0 -> 3 2 high throughput and low delay. Network performance in terms
1 3--> 1 1 -->3 1 - > 3 2
of throughput and fault-toleiance was evaluated
13->12->32
1 3 --> 0 3 --->0 2 -> 3 2
1 3 --->2 3 --22 2 -> 3 2
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pair has many alternative disjoint routes which can be used in multihop packet radio networks,” I E E E Trans. C o m m u n . ,
case of node or link failures due to mobility, interference etc. vol. COM-34, Jan. 1986.
Figure 9 depicts an example of a 16-node network ( p = q = 4)
having six node-disjoint paths between a pair of nodes when [lo] L. H u , “Topology control for multihop packet radio net-
using Long-path routing. works,” I E R E Trans. C o m m u n . , vol. 41, Oct. 1993.
[Ill M. Gerla and J . T. Tsai, “Multicluster, mobile, multimedia
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[la] I. Chlamtac and A. Lerner, “A link allocation protocol for
An architecture comprising a logical topology of physical and
mobile multihop networks,” in Proc. I E E E Globecoin ’85,
virtual subnets, and corresponding addressing, mobilit,y man-
Dec. 1985.
agement and routing schemes were described. This architecture
is applicable to mobile radio networks and accommodates dy- [13] J . Sharony and A. C. Sevdinoglou, “Distributed TDMA-
namic topology changes due to relative movement of network FDMA-CDMA link assignment in mobile radio networks
nodes. T h e architecture partitions a mobile network into log- with/without flexible directivity.” To be submitted for
ically independent subnetworks. Network nodes are members publication, 1996.
of physical and virtual subnets and may change their affilia-
tion with these subnets due to thrir mobility. Each node is
allocated an address based on its current subnet affiliation. We
observed - especially in large networks with random t,opology -
t h a t partitioning of the network may result in significantly more
balanced load than in one large multi-hop network, an attribute
t h a t can significantly improve the net,work’s performance. T h e

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