A Probabilistic Emergent Routing Algorithm for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile ad hoc networks are infrastructure-less networks consisting of wireless, possibly mobile nodes which are organized in peer-to-peer and autonomous fashion. The highly dynamic topology, limited bandwidth availability and energy constraints make the routing problem a challenging one. In this paper we take a novel approach to the routing problem in MANETs by using swarm inteligenceinspired algorithms. The proposed algorithm uses Ant-like agents to discover and maintain paths in a MANET with dynamic topology. We present simulation results that measure the performance of our algorithm with respect to the characteristics of a MANET, the varying parameters of the algorithm itself as well as performance comparison with other well-known routing protocols. 1