This paper proposes and evaluates a new position-based Parallel Routing Protocol (PRP) for simultaneously routing multiple data packets over disjoint paths in a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) for higher reliability and reduced communication delays. PRP views the geographical region where the MANET is located as a virtual 2-dimensional grid of cells. Cell-disjoint (parallel) paths between grid cells are constructed and used for building pre-computed routing tables. A single gateway node in each grid cell handles routing through that grid cell reducing routing overheads. Each node maintains updated information about its own location in the virtual grid using GPS. Nodes also keep track of the location of other nodes using a new proposed cell-based broadcasting algorithm. Nodes exchange energy level information with neighbors allowing energy-aware selection of the gateway nodes. Performance evaluation results have been derived showing the attractiveness of the proposed parallel routing protocol from different respects including low communication delays, high packet delivery ratios, high routing path stability, and low routing overheads.

18 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables