A load-balancing approach in ad-hoc networks

Abstract

In the case of link congestion, most of the existing ad hoc routing protocols like AODV and DSR do not try to discover a new route if there is no change in the network topology. Hence, with low mobility, traffic may get concentrated on some specific nodes. Since mobile devices have low battery power and low computing capability, traffic concentration on a specific node is not a desirable phenomenon. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new routing approach called SLAR (Simple Load-balancing Ad hoc Routing) which resolves the traffic concentration problem by letting each node check its own load situation and give up its role as a packet forwarder gracefully in the case of high traffic load. We compare the performance of SLAR with that of AODV and DSR in terms of the forwarding traffic distribution. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.