Ant replication: saving power expenditure in MANETs

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) require no fixed infrastructure, thus allowing dynamic networks to be created whenever and wherever required. This advantage is not only of huge benefit for military/rescue operations but would also be similarly advantageous in the industrial and educational sectors. However, MANETs are not without their drawbacks. Routes may frequently be broken without notice, due to nodes moving out-of-range, or from the mobile device containing the node being switched off or if power expires. Due to the need for economies in power expenditure, reactive routing protocols are favoured over those that are proactive as nodes are only activated when a route is required. Proactive protocols that keep routes continuously updated will in turn exhaust the batteries of the mobile devices. This paper proposes that power saving can be achieved at the route discovery phase in relation to the routing hybrid protocols involving the use of ants. We will demonstrate that by splitting ants and recovering their history we will achieve efficient power saving as oppose to global ants routing.