A Node Stability-Based Multipath Routing Protocol in Heterogeneous Ad Hoc Networks

Traditional mobile ad hoc networks are assumed to be homogeneous networks that nodes have single radio interface. Nodes moving fast and randomly, so they usually suffer from frequent link failures and less communication opportunities. In order to improve the network performance, heterogeneous ad hoc networks with multiple radio interfaces are involved. There are many routing protocols for traditional ad hoc networks such as DSR, AODV and AOMDV but few work well in heterogeneous networks. In this paper, a multipath protocol based on AOMDV with node stability and link quality for networks where nodes have multiple radio-interfaces is proposed and the node stability by number of neighbors, neighbor similarity between adjacent time and received signal strength indicator (RSSI) is defined. The path quality is measured by the received signal strength indicator (RSSI). The protocol takes the neighbors' average node stability as a reference to select the most stable interface to broadcast RREQ and find at least one path between source and destination. At any time, the protocol always selects the path with the largest path quality value for transmission. By evaluating the delivery, delay and overhead performance on NS-2, the effectiveness of proposed protocol is validated in the end.