Ant-Net: An adaptive routing algorithm

With the increasing demand and complexity of networks, factors such as balancing the load, improving the performance, reducing delay, adaptive nature and finding the optimal path between nodes in a computer network have become crucial. The traditional routing approaches are not able to perform up to the mark as they don't take into account many factors such as reducing delay, adaptive nature and so on. Thus there is a need for more sophisticated techniques to meet the current network problems. The problem solving nature of ant colonies have provided a new approach which inspired to solve these network problems. This paper focuses on Ant net algorithm based on Ant colony optimization which is an adaptive routing algorithm. In this approach, models of collective intelligence are transformed into optimization techniques. The ants travel across various paths in the network, thus depositing of pheromone, collecting route information and congestion. In this paper the Ant-Net algorithm along with the important data structures required has been discussed and it is implemented on a simple packet switch network. The simulations describe the adaptive nature of the algorithm.