Self-organization in mobile ad hoc networks:: The approach of terminodes

The Terminodes project is designing a wide-area mobile ad hoc network which is meant to be used in a public environment; in our approach, the network is run by users themselves. We give a global description of the building blocks used by the basic operation of the network; they all rely on various concepts of self-organization. Routing uses a combination of geography-based information and local MANET-like protocols. Terminode positioning is obtained by either GPS or a relative positioning method. Mobility management uses self-organized virtual regions. Terminodes employ a form of virtual money called nuglets as an incentive to collaborate. Lastly, we discuss directions for providing some level of security.