A probability random scheme of distributed routing algorithm for MANETS

Since the mobile hosts in a MANET keep moving, topological changes take place frequently in the network. This causes routing information kept by the nodes to get outdated easily. These problems become more complex in wireless networks, where bandwidth is limited. This paper proposes a probability random routing algorithm as a solution to this problem. The proposed algorithm, the Probability Random Routing Scheme ( PRS), has a route discovery feature that when a source needs to fmd a routing path to a destination, it does not flood the network with control packets, which is an approach widely used in most of the ad hoc routing algorithms. Instead, the source randomly selects one of its neighbors to send out a route request packet. The operations in the algorithm are designed to generate a small number of control packets. The question that how much the successful rate is in fmding a path without flooding has been studied in this paper. Our studies show that the successful rate in finding a path with only one attempt can be as high as 90%. Through simulations, we study the performance of the network using the proposed PRS routing algorithm, and compare with the well known on-demand routing protocol, Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) and Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP). Our PRS is simple and can be easily implemented while produces better performance.