Ant-based routing protocol for energy efficient use in mobile ad hoc networks

Abstract

Ant colony optimization (ACO) routing algorithm is one of adaptive and efficient algorithms for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). In wireless ad hoc networks, energy utilization is perhaps the most important issue, routing is very much energy-constrained. In this paper, an ant-based energy efficient routing protocol (AEERP) is proposed in MANETs. In AEERP routing protocol, the route choice is dependent on not only hops between nodes, but also the energy consumed in transmitting packets and the residual energy of nodes, it increases the battery lifetime of the nodes by reducing the repetitive use of these nodes. Simulation results show that AEERP can balance the energy consumption of nodes in the network and extends the network lifetime. AEERP has better performance than AntHocNet and MMBCR in balanced energy use and network lifetime. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media.