Load Balanced Ad Hoc Routing Protocol

Most of the routing algorithms in mobile ad hoc networks are based on the shortest path metric, which results in using the same path for several sessions. Consequently, nodes will lose their power, and their paths will eventually become invalid. This paper presents a new method for achieving better load balancing in mobile ad hoc networks. It targets load balancing at the routing layer of the Dynamic Source Routing Protocol (DSR). The new method defines the load in term of the relative time needed to process and forward packets in each node. Also, congestion is predicted and cured using a modified version of the random early detection (RED) queue. A set of changes is applied to the DSR protocol to give the nodes the most recent information about the load within paths and neighborhoods. Simulation results show that the new method results in an overall enhancement of 37% in term of end to end delay when compared with the load-aware on-demand routing (LAOR) Protocol and the load-sensitive routing for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (LSR).