GAACO: Metaheuristic driven approach for routing in OppNet

Routing in delay tolerant network addresses the ability to transport or route bundles from a source to a destination, which is a primary responsibility that all communication networks must have. However, Opportunistic Networks (Opp-Nets) or Delay Tolerant Networks are characterized by the sparse connectivity resulting in a lack of instantaneous end-to-end path between source and destination. In such a challenging environment, popular ad hoc routing protocols such as AODV and DSR fail to establish routes. We introduce a new metaheuristic oriented routing protocol GAACO that utilizes the optimization techniques of Genetic Algorithm and Ant Colony Optimization to find the path between source and destination. GAACO has been simulated in Network Simulator (NS 2) and its performance has been compared with Epidemic routing Protocol on issues such as delay, number of hops traversed, energy consumed and throughput achieved.