Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Routing Using Ant Colony Optimization

Ad-Hoc wireless networks are self-organizing multi-hop wireless networks, where all the nodes take part in the process of forwarding packets. Ad-Hoc networks can quickly and inexpensively be set up as needed since they do not require any fixed infrastructure, such as base stations or routers. Therefore, they are highly applicable in many fields such as emergency deployments and community networking. The function of a routing protocol in Ad-Hoc network is to establish routes between different nodes. Ad-Hoc routing protocols are difficult to design in general, for two main reasons: the highly dynamic nature of these networks due to the high mobility of the nodes, and the need to operate efficiently with limited resources, such as network bandwidth, limited memory and battery power of the individual nodes in the network. Moreover, routing protocols in Ad-Hoc networks, unlike static networks, do not scale well due to frequently changing topology, lack of predefined infrastructure like routers, peer-to-peer mode of communication and limited radio communication range. In this paper, we apply the Ant Colony evolutionary optimization technique to the routing problem, where more of those desirable characteristics can be implied in the guided probabilistic choice of paths. Simulations of a routing based on the biological system referred to as Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) are conducted, taking into account several factors to analyze its adaptive nature. KeywordsAnt Colony; Optimization Algorithm; Ad-Hoc Networks; Routing Protocols; AntNet.