Improved Antnet Routing Algorithm for Packet Switching

Antnet is a software agent based routing algorithm that is influenced by the unsophisticated and individual ant’s emergent behaviour. In this paper a modified antnet algorithm for packet switched network has been proposed that offer improvement in the throughput and the average delay by means of detecting and dropping packets routed through the non-optimal routes. By applying boundaries to the reinforcement parameter it also limits the effect of traffic fluctuations. The round trip feedback information, supplied by the software agents, is reinforced by the updated probability entries in the distance vector table. In addition link usage information is also used to prevent stagnation problems. Also discussed is antnet with multiple ant colonies applied to packet switched networks. Simulation results show that the average delay experienced by data packets is reduced for evaporation for all cases when non-uniform traffic model traffic is used. However, there was no performance gain on the uniform traffic models. In addition, multiple ant colonies was applied to the packet switched networks and results were compared with the other approaches. Results showed that the throughput could be increased when compared with other schemes, but with no gain in average packet delay.