In areas in which there is little or no communication infrastructure or the existing infrastructure is expensive or inconvenient to use, wireless mobile users may still be able to communicate through the formation of an ad hoc network. In such a network, each mobile node operates not only as a host but also as a router, forwarding packets for other mobile nodes that may not be within direct wireless transmission range of each other. The mobile nodes in the network dynamically establish routing among themselves as they move about, forming their own network "on the fly." Some examples of the possible uses of ad hoc networking include supporting students using laptop computers to participate in an interactive lecture, sharing of situational awareness information among soldiers on the battlefield, coordinating between emergency disaster relief personnel after a hurricane or earthquake, or providing inexpensive community-based wireless Internet access.

In this talk, I will describe the design and evaluation of a routing protocol we have developed specifically for use in multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks. This protocol, called Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), is unique in its entirely on-demand operation, allowing it to adapt very quickly to routing changes when host movement is frequent, yet requiring little or no overhead during periods in which hosts move less frequently. We have evaluated DSR and compared it against other proposed routing protocols through detailed simulation, through implementation on a group of cars routing among themselves as they drive around, and through realistic emulation of the network to support controlled laboratory experiments.