This project investigates the potentialities of the Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET’s) paradigm. Specifically, the project aims to define and develop a metropolitan area, self-organizing, and totally wireless network that we call Mobile Metropolitan Ad hoc Network (MobileMAN).

The main technical outputs of this proposal can be summarized as follows.

i) Development, validation, implementation and testing of the architecture, and related protocols, for configuring and managing a MobileMAN. We conduct this research spanning all layers in the networking hierarchy. Our research combines advanced communications and networking research with basic research.

ii) Physical implementation of this architecture for lowers layers (i.e., wireless technologies). This will be done by improving the existing IEEE 802.11 wireless technologies for dealing in bursty access environments as self-organized networks.

iii) Integration of applications on top of our selforganized network. iv) Validation of the self-organizing paradigm from the social and economic standpoint.