Coding-aware multi-path routing in multi-hop wireless networks

To overcome the inherent lossy property of wireless links and increase network throughput, many multi-path routing protocols have been proposed to improve the reliability and latency of packet delivery in wireless networks. Multi-path routing protocols, however, do not take advantage of existing coding opportunities to maximize network throughput. In this paper, we propose a novel coding-aware multi-path routing protocol (CAMP), which forwards packets over multiple paths dynamically based on path reliability and coding opportunity. CAMP employs a route discovery mechanism which returns to the source multiple paths along with ETX (Expected Transmission Count) of all links on each path. Using a novel forwarding mechanism, CAMP splits the traffic among multiple paths and actively creates instead of passively waiting for coding opportunity by switching its path to maximize the switching gain. Experimental results demonstrate that CAMP can achieve much higher throughput than comparable schemes for delivering packets in wireless networks. © 2008 IEEE.