MAC-aided packet-dropper detection in multi-hop wireless networks

Free-riding by packet dropping is one of the most important issues for the establishment and survivability of the open multi-hop wireless networks. In this paper, we focus on the data packet dropping in a rather dense Mobile Ad-hoc Network. To encounter this situation, we propose a scheme based on using MAC-layer acknowledgements to detect and punish packet dropper nodes. We used simulation-based results to evaluate the performance of our scheme. All simulations have been performed using NS-2.