  A crucial issue for a mobile ad hoc network is the handling of a large number
of nodes. As more nodes join the mobile ad hoc network, contention and
congestion are more likely. The on demand routing protocols which broadcasts
control packets to discover routes to the destination nodes, generate a high
number of broadcast packets in a larger networks causing contention and
collision. We propose an efficient route discovery protocol, which reduces the
number of broadcast packet, using controlled flooding technique. The simulation
results show that the proposed probabilistic flooding decreases the number of
control packets floating in the network during route discovery phase, without
lowering the success ratio of path discoveries. Furthermore, the proposed
method adapts to the normal network conditions. The results show that up to 70%
of control packet traffic is saved in route discovery phase when the network is
denser.
