Intelligent ants for adaptive network routing

An adaptive routing algorithm based on the AntNet algorithm is designed and implemented with a new routing table formation scheme. This addresses the unrealistic requirement of the original AntNet algorithm for global information. The new algorithm requires limited routing information in the routing and traffic statistics tables. The routers only have the most popular destinations in their routing tables and update these destinations at a scheduled time. Each router keeps a traffic table to record visiting data packets. Under this approach, a data packet is forwarded randomly if its destination does not exist in the routing table. Unlike the original AntNet algorithm, ants and data packets have time flags to avoid them having infinite lives. Experiments show that the new approach gives promising results.