ROUTE OPTIMIZATION IN MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORKS USING ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUE

Abstract

Routing is the core of any network, strongly affecting the overall network performance. The general routing problem is the problem of defining path flows to forward incoming data traffic such that the overall network performance is optimized. At each node data is forwarded according to a decision policy parameterized by a local data structure called routing table. The route finding algorithm starts as soon as a data packet needs to be sent from a source to a given destination. Aim of routing is to find the route in the shortest possible time and to guarantee finding a path to the destination when such a path exists. Routing in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks faces difficulty of frequent topology change, as Mobile Ad-hoc networks are often characterized by a dynamic topology due to the fact that nodes change their physical location by moving around. Swarm intelligence is overviewed and it is found that the Ant Colony Optimization Technique exhibits features which are highly desirable in Ad-hoc Networks. Ant Colony Optimization Technique suites the routing requirements of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks because of its Dynamic topology, Local information and Support for multi-path. Therefore here we have used the ant colony optimization technique for finding an optimized route in the Mobile Ad-hoc Networks. The goal of this thesis is to design a new adaptive routing technique for finding an optimized route in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks. The work provides an overview of routing protocol in Ad-hoc networks. Various mechanisms that are commonly encountered in Ad-hoc routing are experimentally evaluated under situations as close to real life as possible. Where possible, enhancements to the mechanism are suggested. Finally, an optimized route, suitable for Ad-hoc Networks is defined and compared with one of the exiting algorithm.