![[Rice Monarch Project]](monarch_banner2.gif)
Mobile users should be able to move about, communicating with each other and with wired or stationary hosts, each expecting and obtaining the highest level of service from their mobile hosts and from the network at any time. Mobile hosts should at all times be able to make use of the best available network connectivity, whether wired or wireless. With each change in location or type of network in use, the protocols and applications on the mobile host and on other hosts with which the mobile host is communicating should be able to adapt to the new characteristics of the mobile host's network connection. These changes include changes in the routing location, bandwidth, latency, error rate, and costs of the network in use. The Monarch Project at Rice University is a long-term research project, started in 1992, dedicated to making this vision of adaptive mobile internetworking possible.
Much of our current work is in the area of ad hoc networks. In such a network, each mobile node operates not only as a host but also as a router, forwarding packets for other mobile nodes that may not be within direct wireless transmission range of each other. The network is dynamically self-organizing and self-configuring, with the mobile nodes in the network automatically establishing and maintaining routing among themselves as they move about, forming their own network ``on the fly,'' without requirement for any existing infrastructure or administration. Some examples of the possible uses of ad hoc networking include students using laptop computers to participate in an interactive lecture, business associates sharing information during a meeting, soldiers relaying information for situational awareness on the battlefield, and emergency disaster relief personnel coordinating efforts after a hurricane or earthquake. We have also worked extensively in the area of routing support for mobile hosts operating in a large internetwork, including the design of Mobile IP for the Internet, and are also studying the affects of mobility on other network protocols such as reliable transport protocols, and the support for mobility in higher layer protocols and applications.
For a slightly old summary of some of our research in the Monarch Project, see the article "Protocols for Adaptive Wireless and Mobile Networking", by David B. Johnson and David A. Maltz, in the February 1996 issue of IEEE Personal Communications magazine. This issue of IEEE Personal Communications is a special issue devoted to mobile computing research at CMU.