SIMPLIFIED ROUTING FOR MOBILE AD HOC NETWORKS USING A COMBINED RESOURCE METRIC

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks are autonomous, infrastructure-less networks consisting of wireless mobile devices. Within the network, “the sender communicates with the receiver only if it is in radio communication range of one another; otherwise, it must communicate through intermediate nodes. To enable reliable communication, cooperation among intermediate nodes and the use of their resources are essential; otherwise, packets are dropped. The primary reasons for these drops are “battery drain,” “full buffers,” and “high traffic at the intermediate nodes.” These packet drops are unintentional. This paper proposes a simplified routing method to address undesirable packet drops by planning routes that avoid congestion and maximize resource utilization at nodes. These routes are determined based on each intermediate node's remaining power, available memory, and current traffic levels. Performance evaluation of this protocol is conducted on a simulated network and compared with other standard reactive methods, accounting for uniform traffic distribution. The simulation results show that this protocol can significantly reduce undesirable packet drops and increase successful transmissions, ensuring a reliable communication system for critical applications, including disaster relief operations and healthcare systems.