Leader Election Algorithms for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Navneet Malpani, Jennifer L. Welch, and Nitin Vaidya

We present two new leader election algorithms for mobile ad hoc networks. The algorithms ensure that eventually each connected component of the topology graph has exactly one leader. The algorithms are based on a routing algorithm called TORA (Park and Corson, 1997), which in turn is based on an algorithm by Gafni and Bertsekas (1981). The algorithms require nodes to communicate with only their current neighbors, making it well suited to the ad hoc environment. The first algorithm is for a single topology change and is provided with a proof of correctness. The second algorithm tolerates multiple concurrent topology changes.