Encyclopedia of Next Generation Networks and Ubiquitous Computing
(EN)
A Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) is a collection of wireless mobile nodes
forming a network without using any existing infrastructure. All mobile nodes
function as mobile routers that discover and maintain routes to other mobile nodes of
the network and therefore, can be connected dynamically in an arbitrary manner. The
mobility attribute of MANETs is a very significant one. The mobile nodes may follow
different mobility patterns that may affect connectivity, and in turn protocol
mechanisms and performance. Mobility prediction may positively affect the serviceoriented
aspects as well as the application-oriented aspects of ad hoc networking. At
the network level, accurate node mobility prediction may be critical to tasks such as
call admission control, reservation of network resources, pre-configuration of services
and QoS provisioning. At the application level, user mobility prediction in
combination with user’s profile may provide the user with enhanced location-based
wireless services, such as route guidance, local traffic information and on-line
advertising. In this chapter we present the most important mobility prediction schemes
for MANETs in the literature, focusing on their main design principles and
characteristics.
(EN)
