An Ω-Based Leader Election Algorithm for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Leader election is a fundamental control problem in both wired and wireless systems. The classical statement of the leader election problem in distributed systems is to eventually elect a unique leader from a fixed set of nodes. However, in MANETS, many complications may arise due to frequent and unpredictable topological changes. This paper presents a leader election algorithm based on the omega failures detector, where inter-node communication is allowed only among the neighboring nodes along with proofs of correctness. This algorithm ensures that every connected component of the mobile ad hoc network will eventually elect a unique leader, which is the node of the highest priority value from among all nodes within that connected component. The algorithm can tolerate intermittent failures, such as link failures, network partitions, and merging of connected network components.