Multipath Ant Routing Algorithm in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are networks that consist entirely of mobile nodes, placed together in an ad hoc manner. All nodes have routing capabilities, and forward data packets for other nodes. Nodes can enter or leave the network at any time, and may be mobile, so that the network topology changes frequently. There are lots of challenges in these networks which makes routing task hard. These challenges arise from the dynamic and unplanned nature of these networks, from the unreliability of wireless communication, from the limited resources available in terms of bandwidth, processing capacity, etc., and from the possibly large scale of these networks. Due to these different challenges, new algorithms are needed at all layers of the network protocol stack. We try to cover these challenges by using ideas from artificial intelligence namely Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Multipath Routing. ACO algorithms tend to provide properties such as adaptivity and robustness, which are needed to deal with the challenges present in MANETs. Multipath routing provides multiple stable paths for routing data sets, which bring efficiency for MANETs. So we present Multipath Ant Routing (MAR) algorithm which combines ideas from ACO routing and Multipath routing. The algorithm has hybrid architecture, combining both reactive and proactive mechanisms. In simulation results, we show that for a wide range of different environments and performance metrics, MAR can outperform.