Abstract
Geographic Routing is a new process for routing data packets through an internetwork of computers. Our process distinguishes itself from the current routing technology by using arbitrary geographical regions (denoted by longitude and latitude) instead of logical computer addresses as the criteria to route a packet. The purpose of this new technology is to extend the capabilities of the current IP internetwork by adding a new geographic message protocol to the current IP suite of protocols (which currently consists of UDP and TCP). This geographic protocol is many-tomany and connectionless This is an enabling technology. This technology would be used by the application programmers and not by the common end- user. We provide an Application Programming Interface (API) that a programmer would use to interface with the geographic routing protocol in order to send and receive messages. The system is designed to give the user as much flexibility as possible in designating the destination geographical region. Ideally, the user would interact with a graphical user interface that would contain a geographic map of the desired destination area. The user would then draw a bounded polygon around the targeted region and designate a message to send to that region. The application would then translate that polygon from the screen coordinates to geographic coordinates, which use longitude and latitude, and then utilize the API to send the message to those coordinates. The geographic routing system would now transport the message from geographic-router to geographicrouter in a multi-hop fashion until the networks in the destination area are reached. At this point, the routers will broadcast or multicast the message to everyone within the target area. Currently, we are in the process of evaluating a prototype implementation and setting up an experimental network capable of routing the geographic messages. This network would be deployed in stages: first throughout the Computer Science Department, then the Rutgers University network, and, finally, to participating universities and government/military facilities. This is currently a DARPA-sponsored Integrated Technology Demonstration (ITD) within the GloMo I (Global Mobile Information Systems) program.