SiFT: An efficient method for trajectory based forwarding

Trajectory Based Forwarding (TBF) is a new approach for routing in ad hoc wireless networks. It assumes that nodes know their position and, similarly to source routing, requires the source node to encode a trajectory into the packet header. However, trajectories are just geometrical lines and the routing process does not require specifying forwarding nodes. As a matter of fact, forwarding nodes are dynamically selected while packets cross the network according to their position with respect to the trajectory. Therefore, this new approach is particularly suitable for application scenarios where network topology is fast varying, due to node mobility (e.g. inter-vehicular networks) or to energy management schemes (e.g. sensor networks), whereas the stability of the trajectories is guaranteed by the physical characteristics of the service area (roads, building aisles, etc.). In this paper we propose a new TBF scheme that exploits broadcast transmissions at the MAC layer and does not require maintaining a list of active neighbours positions in every node. We consider piecewise lines connecting source node to destination area and we extend the approach to the multicast case defining trajectory-trees.