AntNet-RSLR: A proposed Ant routing protocol for MANETs

A mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is a dynamic mobile wireless network that can be formed without the need for any pre-existing wired or wireless infrastructure. One of the main challenges in an ad hoc network is the design of robust routing algorithms that adapt to the frequent and randomly changing network topology. This paper proposes a novel routing scheme for MANETs, which adapts the AntNet protocol with the blocking-expanding Ring Search and Local Retransmission technique (AntNet-RSLR). According to this protocol, a group of mobile agents build paths between pair of nodes, exploring the network concurrently and exchanging obtained information to update the routing tables that decreases both of the routing message overhead and the average end to end delay less than the well known AntNet, AODV and DSR routing protocols. This led to increase the throughput more than AntNet, AODV and DSR routing protocols. AntNet-RSLR has been implemented using NS-2 simulator.