Load Balancing Routing Algorithm for Ad Hoc Networks

In ad hoc networks, when the load is heavy, the performance of on-demand routing protocols, such as DSR protocol, will suffer large degradation. For instance, the absence of balanced distribution of network flow among nodes in the whole network is highly prone to producing heavy-load key nodes. This results in fast energy consumption of these key nodes, and finally decreasing the survival time of the network caused by their premature failures. To address this problem, a novel algorithm called cross-layer based load balancing algorithm for DSR (CLB-DSR) is proposed. In CLB-DSR, the cross-layer strategy is adopted to exchange the information between data link layer and network layer. Simulation results show that the improved routing protocol using CLB-DSR can effectively balance network load, improve the network throughput and reduce the end-to-end delay, the rate of data dropped.