Enhanced QoS support in Mobile Ad hoc Networks using multipath routing backbones

Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning has been a challenging task in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) due to their dynamic and un-predictable behaviour and topology change. This paper presents a new approach based on multipath routing backbones for enhanced QoS in MANETs. Nodes in MANETs greatly differ with each other in terms of communication and processing capabilities. In this approach, multiple routing backbones are identified from source to destination using intermediate nodes that have better communication and processing capabilities to take part in the mobile routing backbones and efficiently participate in the routing process. In addition to enhanced QoS support, the new approach also provides better congestion control according to current network traffic levels and nodes' processing loads. Simulation results show that this approach reduces end-to-end delay considerably and improves network throughput and packet delivery ratio by directing traffic through lowly congested multiple routing backbones that are rich in resources.