Optimizing MANET routing in AODV: An hybridization approach of ACO and firefly algorithm

Rapid growth in usage of wireless devices over the year has led to an increased demand of Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) technology in connecting these devices over a distributed network. Routing in MANET becomes a more challenging area, where constant researches are being conducted to decrease losses and transmission delays between the source and the destination. A new breed of routing protocols based on metaheuristics like Ant-Colony Optimization (ACO) have emerged to provide an alternative solution to route discovery phase in MANET but with the dynamic structure of MANET it has limitation of premature convergence. In this paper we propose a hybridization of the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and the Firefly, swarming algorithm (FA) for Ad-Hoc On Demand Distance Vectoring (AODV) routing protocol to increase the efficiency in the transmission of the signals in a MANET system and thereby intending to substantially reduce the losses, so incurred using solely the AODV Routing Protocol and overcome drawbacks of ACO based AODV. We made comparative studies on the proposed hybrid algorithm with the existing routing algorithms (AODV and ACO based AODV) thereby ensuring reduction of network load by avoiding re-discovery attempts between the nodes.