  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.
