A novel Ant Colony Algorithm using available path information for PLC networking

Power Line Carrier communication is a fast-developing technology and finds many applications, such as automatic meter-reading system. However, as the one-hop communication distance is limited due to the channel attenuation and strong line noises, relay technology is necessary for PLC networking. Among all the relay methods, Ant Colony Algorithm is a promising one but still with some shortcomings, such as the long searching time and the inclination to find a local optimal solution. This article provided a simple but effective algorithm to make use of the available path information to speed up the searching process, and reach the global optimal path. Experiment results show the presented algorithm can improve convergence time by 13.5%.