An Optimized Ad Hoc on Demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol for Wireless Networks

Problem statement: Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) is communication network made up of mesh routers and mesh clients, with mesh routers forming the backbone of the network. The WMN can be accessed by other networks through gateways and bridging functions in the mesh routers. The mesh clients can either be static or mobile with an option of forming a client mesh network with the mesh routers. Routing in WMN is through multi-hop relays including the access points and gateways. Many ad hoc routing protocols such as Highly Dynamic Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV), Ad Hoc on Demand Distance Vector (AODV) are used in WMN. Though these routing protocols are used in WMN, the protocols do not address constraints inherent to WSN, due to which network resources are not properly utilized and there is a fall in Quality of Service (QoS). Thus, these routing protocols are enhanced with new routing metrics more appropriate to WMN. Approach: In this study, a Modified on-demand routing algorithm for Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs), Ant Mesh Network AODV is proposed. AODV is modified to include the ant colony based optimization. The modified routing protocol improves the throughput and decreases the packet loss along with reduction in routing overhead. Results and Conclusion: The proposed optimization technique decreases the energy overhead of nodes in the network which are one hop neighbor to the sink.