An Improved MultiAnts-Aodv Routing Protocol For Ad Hoc Wireless N

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations
1-1-2003
An improved MultiAnts-Aodv routing protocol for ad hoc wireless

networks
Jun Wang
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 1569.
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A N IM PR O V E D M ULTI A N T S -A O D V R O U T IN G P R O TO C O L FO R A D HOC
W IR E L E SS N E T W O R K S
by
Jun W ang
B achelor o f Science
B eijing P olytechnic U niversity, B eijing
1997
A thesis subm itted in partial fulfillm ent

o f the requirem ents for the
Master of Science Degree in Computer Science

School of Computer Science
Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering
Graduate College
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
December 2003
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IJNIV Dissertation Approval
The G rad u ate College
U niversity of N evada, Las Vegas
N ovem ber 14 20 03
The D issertation p repared by
L in g Wang
Entitled
S c h e d u l i n g a n d P a r t i t i o n i n g VLSI C i r c u i t O p e r a t i o n a t M u l t i p l e
S u p p ly V o l t a g e s __________________________________________________________
is approved in p artial fulfillm ent of the requirem ents for the degree of
__________ P h .D . i n E l e c t r i c a l E n g i n e e r i n g _______________
/ IÀa / / v\a A /\A ^

X-
E xam ination C o m m itte e C h a i r ^
D ean o f the G radu ate C ollege
Ixamination C om m ittee M em ber
E xam ination C cm m ittee M em ber
G raduate College F aculty R epresentative
PR/1017-52/1-00 11
ABSTRA CT
An improved MultiAnts-AODV routing protocol for

Ad Hoc Wireless Networks
by
Jun W ang
Dr. A joy K. D atta, E xam ination C om m ittee C hair

P rofessor o f C om puter Science
U niversity o f N evada, Las Vegas
C om pared to the conventional table-driven and on-dem and routing protocols, a hybrid
routing protocol [71], w hich uses m obile agents and reactive route discovery, introduced a
m ore realistic solution to this problem . H ow ever, the m obile agents w ere not fully exploited
in this protocol. In this thesis research, w e will propose an im proved M ultiA nts-A O D V ro u tin g
protocol based on ant-AODV. T he goal o f our design is to reduce the end-to-end delay and
ro u te discovery latency. To achieve a better perform ance, the com m unication schem e am ong
th e agents is strengthened. W e also present an im proved navigation algorithm fo r m obile
agents to update the routing tables m ore efficiently. W e extend the routing table to reduce the
latency o f routing discovery in case o f link failures. T he sim ulation based com parisons am ong
several navigation algorithm s are also presented.
Ill
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
A B S T R A C T .............................................................................................................................................. iii
L IST O F F IG U R E S .................................................................................................................................vi
L IS T O F T A B L E S .................................................................................................................................. vii
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S ..................................................................................................................viii
C H A P T E R 1 IN T R O D U C T IO N ..........................................................................................................1
1.1 T he introduction o f M A N ETs ................................................................................................. 1
1.2 T he O verview o f routing p roblem s in the M A N E T s........................................................10
1.3 C ontributions o f this t h e s is ...................................................................................................... 14
1.4 T he organization o f this th esis................................................................................................. 15
C H A P T E R 2 R O U T IN G U SIN G M O B IL E A G E N T S ................................................................16
2.1 T he concept o f m obile agent and its ad v a n ta g es................................................................16
2.2 M obile A gents A p p licatio n s.................................................................................................... 20
2.3 T he overview o f the classic routing alg o rith m ...................................................................21
2.4 A nts based routing alg o rith m s.................................................................................................24
2.5 The benefits from m ultiple agents' collaborations.............................................................28
C H A P T E R 3 C O N V E N T IO N A L R O U T IN G A L G O R IT H M F O R M A N E T s....................31
3.1 Table driven a lg o rith m s ............................................................................................................31
3.2 O n-dem and a lg o rith m s ............................................................................................................. 36
3.3 A O D V a lg o rith m ........................................................................................................................ 41
C H A P T E R 4 A N IM PR O V E D M U LTIA N TS-A O D V R O U TIN G A L G O R IT H M ...........50

4.1 A nt-based routing algorithm for M A N E T s.........................................................................50
4.2 A n A N T-A O D V H ybrid routing protocol for M A N E T s................................................. 53
4.3 A n im proved A N T-A O D V H ybrid routing protocol for M A N E T s..............................55
C H A P T E R 5 IM PLEM EN TA TIO N ISSU E S A N D SIM U LA TIO N R E S U L T S ................. 71

5.1 Introduction o f the sim ulator.....................................................................................................71
5.2 C om parisons am ong 3 navigation alg o rith m s..................................................................... 73
C H A P T E R 6 C O N C L U S IO N ............................................................................................................. 80
6.1 The Thesis su m m ery ................................................................................................................... 80
6.2 T he F uture w orks ....................................................................................................................... 81
IV
R E F E R E N C E S .........................................................................................................................................83
V IT A ........................................................................................................................................................... 92
LIST OF FIGURES
F igure 1.1.1 Handofif betw een A ccess P o in ts .................................................................................2

Figure 1.1.1 A n exam ple o f cellular M o d e l................................................................................... 3
Figure 1.1.2 A n exam ple o f an ad hoc n e tw o r k ........................................................................... 4
Figure 1.2.1 C lassification o f M obile A d hoc N etw ork R outing P ro to c o ls ........................ 11
Figure 2.1. M obile A gents S ystem ................................................................................................ 18
Figure 2.2. The B ellm an-F ord algorithm updates the distance v e c to rs ............................ 23
Figure 2.3. A tw o-bridge experim ent d em o n stratio n ..............................................................29
Figure 3.1. A O D V R oute D iscovery P ro c e ss........................................................................... 45
Figure 3.2. A O D V R everse P ath F o rm a tio n .............................................................................45
F igure 3.3. A O D V F orw ard Path F o rm atio n .............................................................................47
F igure 3.4. A O D V R oute M aintenance.......................................................................................48
Figure 4.1. A dem onstration o f ants based ro u tin g ..................................................................52
Figure 4.2. A dem onstration o f A nt-A O D V routing p ro to c o l..............................................55
Figure 4.3. N o return ru le ................................................................................................................56
Figure 4.4. The m igration strategy o f “ conscientious agent” ............................................... 58
Figure 4.5. A n exam ple o f “N otification o f L ink F ailures” propagation.......................... 68
Figure 5.1. The snapshot o f the sim u la tio n ............................................................................... 73
Figure 5.2. T he com parison o f the convergence sp ee d .......................................................... 74
Figure 5.3. T he com parison o f the total steps taken to deliver the data p ac k et..............75
F igure 5.4. The com parison o f the actual hops taken to deliver the data p ac k et............ 76
VI
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1. C om parisons o f G n-D em and versus Table-driven R outing P ro to c o ls 41

Table 4.1. A n exam ple o f A M IT table stored on n o d e s........................................................ 65
Table 4.2. A n exam ple o f routing table w ith tw o entries for each d estin a tio n ..............67
Table 5.1. Sam ple data for the com parisons (10-30) m obile a g e n ts .................................77
Table 5.2. Sam ple data for the com parisons (40-60) m obile a g e n ts ................................ 78
Vll
ACKNOW LEDGM ENTS
I w ould like to thank m y thesis advisors Dr. A joy K. D atta a n d D r. M a r ia G r a d in a r iu
f o r th e i r g u id a n c e , s u p p o r t a n d e n c o u r a g e m e n t t h r o u g h o u t th is th e s is r e s e a r c h . It
h a s b e e n a v e r y r e w a r d in g e x p e r ie n c e to w o rk w ith th e m .
I also w ould like to express m y deepest gratitude to m y w ife and m y parents.
V lll
CHAPTER 1
IN T R O D U C T IO N
1.1 The introduction o f M A NETs
T here has been trem endous interest in the past few years in m obile w ireless netw orks, due
to the progresses and advances in new technologies, although the concept o f m obile w ireless
netw orks has existed for several decades. M ore and m ore sm all, inexpensive and pow erful
m obile com puting devices are em erging, ranging from Personal D igital A ssistants (PD A s),
m obile phones, handhelds, w earable com puters to laptops. These m obile com puting devices
h av e the inform ation processing and accessing capabilities with m obility. Subsequently, the
dem and o f com puting-on-the-m ove causes m obile w ireless netw orking to gain popularity.
W ith the popularity o f the m obile com puting devices, “com puting anyw here and anytim e”
is b ecom ing a m otto for the com puter users naturally. H ence, the netw orking in the connections
am ong various m obile com puting devices becom es m ore critical than every before. W ith the
d ev elopm ent in w ireless com m unication technologies in decades, w ireless netw orking enables
w ireless m obile units to com m unicate w ith each other in diverse m ethods, but generally there
are tw o distinct types o f m obile w ireless netw orks, infrastructured w ireless netw orks and
infrastructureless w ireless netw orks.
1) Infrastructured; W ireless m obile netw orks are based on the traditional cellular netw orks.
2) w here all nodes are one-hop aw ay from a base station. M obile nodes directly com m un icate
w ith access points or base stations and generally do not establish point-to-point
connections with other m obile nodes. A ccess points are usually connected to the rest o f the
netw ork or the Internet. Typical exam ples o f this kind o f w ireless netw orks are G SM ,
U M TS, W LL, W LA N , etc. As show n in Fig. 1.1.1, each access point has a coverage area, in
w hich it is able to send signals to, and receive signals from other m obile nodes. N odes
w ithin the area o f an access point are able to com m unicate directly w ith that access point.
B ut as the m obile node m oves from the coverage area o f one access point into that of
another, a handoff occurs, w here the node ceases com m unication w ith the old access p oint
and begins com m unicating w ith the new access point. T he handoff should be com pletely
seam less so that the user is not aw are that a transition in coverage areas has occurred.
Y r — 7 V
Handoff Area
Figure 1.1.1. Handoff between Access Points
z ''
Figure 1.1.2. An example of cellular Model
Infrastructured w ireless netw orks are com m only used in office buildings and college
cam puses or locations w here the access points can be easily installed and connected to an
existing netw ork. W AP products are a typical exam ple o f the com m ercial application fo r this
type o f w ireless netw orks.
3) Infrastructureless: In contrast to infrastructured netw orks, infrastructureless netw orks, also
called m obile ad hoc netw orks (M A N ET) have no fixed backbone. A ll nodes are capab le o f
m ovem ent. C om m unication in ad hoc netw orks is peer-to-peer as the m obile nodes
com m unicate directly w ith one another. Since the transm ission range o f the nodes are also
lim ited, fo r the com m unication o f a given source and destination, m ultiple hops m ay be
needed. H ence, the nodes m ust serve as routers fo r other nodes in the netw ork so that data
packets can be forw arded to their destinations. As show n in Fig. 1.1.3, an exam ple o f an ad
hoc netw ork. B ecause there is no fixed backbone along w hich routing could occur, an ad
hoc netw ork needs a routing protocol that can establish and m aintain routes, even in
netw orks w ith dynam ic topologies.
S in g te-h o p MWtïhop
ExampI» of powsr-
ccntrdled transmit
range
y
/o
O Soiree
0 Deetinatico
O Relay
O Othetnod*
Fig. 1.1.3. A n exam ple o f an ad hoc netw ork
1.1.1 T he definition o f the M A N E T and its applications
In short, a M A N E T is a collection o f w ireless nodes that can dynam ically form a netw ork
to exchange inform ation w ithout any aid from the pre-existing fixed netw ork infrastructure.
T his is a very im portant part o f com m unication technology that supports truly pervasive
com puting, because in m any contexts inform ation exchange betw een m obile units can n o t rely
on any fixed netw ork infrastructure, but on the rapid configuration o f w ireless connections on
the fly [1].
A d hoc netw orking can be applied anyw here w here there is little or n o com m unication
in frastructure o r the existing infrastructure is expensive or inconvenient to use. A d hoc
n etw orking allow s the devices to m aintain connections to the netw ork as w ell as easily adding
and rem oving devices to and from the netw ork. T he set o f applications for M A N ETs is diverse,
ranging from large-scale, m obile, highly dynam ic netw orks, to sm all, static netw orks th at are
co n strained by pow er sources. B esides the legacy applications that m ove from traditional
infrastructured environm ent into the ad hoc context, a great deal o f new services can and will
be generated fo r the new environm ent. Typical applications include [1]:
1) C om m ercial sector. A d hoc can be used in em ergency/rescue operations for d isaster relief
efforts, e.g. in fire, flood, or earthquake. E m ergency rescue operations m ust take place
w here non-existing or dam aged com m unications infrastructure and rapid deploym en t o f a
com m unication netw ork is needed. O ther com m ercial scenarios include e.g. ship-to-ship ad
hoc m obile com m unication, law enforcem ent, etc.
2) M ilitary battlefield. M ilitary equipm ent now routinely contains som e sort o f com p u ter
equipm ent. A d hoc netw orking w ould allow the m ilitary to take advantage o f com m onplace
netw ork technology to m aintain an inform ation netw ork betw een the soldiers, vehicles, and
m ilitary inform ation head quarters. T he basic techniques o f ad hoc netw ork cam e from this
field.
4) L ocal level. A d hoc netw orks can autonom ously link an instant and tem porary m ultim ed ia
netw ork using notebook com puters or palm top com puters to spread and share inform ation
am ong participants at a e.g. conference or classroom . A nother appropriate local level
application m ight be in hom e netw orks w here devices can com m unicate directly to
exchange inform ation. Sim ilarly in other civilian environm ents like taxicab, sports stadium ,
boat and sm all aircraft, m obile ad hoc com m unications will have m any applications.
5) P ersonal A rea N etw ork (PAN). Short-range M A N E T can sim plify the intercom m unication
betw een various m obile devices (such as a PD A , a laptop, and a cellular phone). Tedious
w ired cables are replaced w ith w ireless connections. Such an ad hoc netw ork can also
extend the access to the Internet or other netw orks by m echanism s e.g. W ireless L A N
(W LA N ), G PR S, and UM TS. The PAN is potentially a prom ising application field o f
M A N E T in the future pervasive com puting context.
1.1.2 T he H istory O f T he M ANETs
A lthough the m obile ad hoc netw ork has been the focus o f m any recent research and
d ev elopm ent efforts, it is not a new concept. T he roots o f ad hoc netw orking can be traced back
as far as 1968, w hen w ork on the A LO H A netw ork w as initiated (the objective o f this netw ork
w as to connect educational facilities in H aw aii). A lthough fixed stations w ere em ployed, the
A L O H A protocol lent itself to distributed channel access m anagem ent and hence provid ed a
basis fo r the subsequent developm ent o f distributed channel-access schem es that w ere suitable
fo r ad hoc netw orking. T he A L O H A protocol itself w as a single-hop protocol, that is, it did not
inherently support routing. Instead every node had to be within reach o f all other particip atin g
nodes. Inspired by the A L O H A netw ork and the early developm ent o f fixed netw ork p ack et
sw itching, D ARPA began work, in 1973, on the P R net (packet radio netw ork), a m ultihop
netw ork. In this context, m ultihopping m eans that nodes cooperated to relay traffic on b e h a lf o f
one another to reach distant stations that w ould otherw ise have been out o f range. P R net
provided m echanism s fo r m anaging operation centrally as well as on a distributed basis. A s an
additional benefit, it was realized that m ultihopping techniques increased netw ork capacity,
since the spatial dom ain could be reused for concurrent but physically separate m ultihop
sessions. A lthough m any experim ental packet radio netw orks w ere later developed, these
w ireless system s did no t ever really take o ff in the consum er segm ent. W hen developing IE E E
802.11 [3], a standard for w ireless local area netw orks (W LA N ), the Institute o f E lectrical and
E lectronic E ngineering (IEEE) replaced the term packet-radio netw ork w ith ad hoc netw ork.
A new w orking group for M A N E T has been form ed within the Internet E ngineering Task
Force (IETF) [2], aim ing to investigate and develop candidate standard Internet routing support
for m obile, w ireless IP autonom ous segm ents and develop a fram ew ork for running IP based
p rotocols in ad hoc netw orks. T he recent IEEE standard 802.11 [3] has increased the research
interest in the field. M any international conferences and w orkshops have been held by e.g.
IE E E and A C M . F or instance, M obiH oc (The A C M Sym posium on M obile A d H oc
N etw orking & C om puting) has been one o f the m ost im portant conferences o f A C M
SIG M O B IL E (Special Interest G roup on M obility o f System s, U sers, D ata and C om puting).
R esearch in the area o f ad hoc netw orking is receiving m ore attention from academ ia, industry,
and governm ent. Since these netw orks pose m any com plex issues, there are m any open
p roblem s fo r research and significant contributions.
1.1.3 T he Issues A nd C haracteristics O f An A d Hoc N etw ork
M A N ETs allow devices to establish com m unication, anytim e and anyw here w ithout th e aid
o f a central infrastructure. T he share the follow ing characteristics:
1) A utonom ous term inal. In M ANET, each m obile term inal is an autonom ous node, w hich
m ay function as both a host and a router.
2) D istributed operation. Since there is no background netw ork for the central control o f
the netw ork operations, the control and m anagem ent o f the netw ork is distributed am ong
the term inals.
3) M ultihop routing. B asic types o f ad hoc routing algorithm s can be single-hop and
m ultihop, based on different link layer attributes and routing protocols. S ingle-hop
M A N E T is sim pler than m ultihop in term s o f structure and im plem entation, w ith the cost
of lesser functionality and applicability. W hen delivering data packets from a source to its
destination out o f the direct w ireless transm ission range, the packets should be forw arded
via one or m ore interm ediate nodes.
4) D ynam ic netw ork topology. Since the nodes are m obile, the netw ork topology m ay
change rapidly and unpredictably and the connectivity am ong the term inals m ay vary w ith
tim e. M A N E T should adapt to the traffic and propagation conditions as w ell as the
m obility patterns o f the m obile netw ork nodes. The m obile nodes in the netw ork
dynam ically establish routing am ong them selves as they m ove about, form ing th eir ow n
netw ork on the fly. M oreover, a user in the M A N E T m ay not only operate w ithin the ad
hoc netw ork, but m ay require access to a public fixed netw ork (e.g. Internet).
5) F luctuating link capacity. The nature o f high bit-error rates o f w ireless connection m ight
be m ore profound in a M ANET. One end-to-end path can be shared by several sessions.
The channel over w hich the term inals com m unicate is subject to noise, fading, and
interference, and has less bandw idth than a w ired netw ork. In som e scenarios, the path
betw een any pair o f users can traverse m ultiple w ireless links and the link them selves can
be heterogeneous.
6) L ight-w eight term inals. In m ost cases, the M A N E T nodes are m obile devices w ith less
C PU processing capability, sm all m em ory size, and low pow er storage. Such devices need
optim ized algorithm s and m echanism s that im plem ent the com puting and com m unicatin g
functions.
R egardless o f the attractive applications, the features o f M A N E T introduce several
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challenges that m ust be studied carefully before a w ide com m ercial deploym ent can be
expected. T hese include:
1) R outing. Since the topology o f the netw ork is constantly changing, the issue o f routing
packets betw een any pair o f nodes becom es a challenging task. M ost protocols should be
based on reactive routing instead o f proactive. M ulticast routing is another challenge
because the m ulticast tree is no longer static due to the random m ovem ent o f nodes w ithin
the netw ork. R outes betw een nodes m ay potentially contain m ultiple hops, w hich is m ore
com plex than the single hop com m unication.
2) Security and Reliability. In addition to the com m on vulnerabilities o f w ireless
connection, an ad hoc netw ork has its particular security problem s due to e.g. nasty
neighbor relaying packets.
3) Q uality o f S ervice (QoS). P roviding different quality o f service levels in a constantly
changing environm ent will be a challenge. T he inherent stochastic feature of
com m unications quality in a M A N E T m akes it difficult to offer fixed guarantees on the
services offered to a device.
4) Internetw orking. In addition to the com m unication w ithin an ad hoc netw ork,
internetw orking betw een M A N E T and fixed netw orks (m ainly IP based) is often expected
in m any cases..
5) P o w er C onsum ption. F or m ost of the light-w eight m obile term inals, the
com m unication-related functions should be optim ized fo r lean pow er consum ption.
C onservation o f pow er and pow er-aw are routing m ust be taken into consideration.
It has been w idely recognized that routing strategy is the m ost im portant research problem
10
am ong others.
1.2 T he O verview o f R outing Problem s In T he M A N ETs
F or m obile ad hoc netw orks, the issue o f routing packets betw een any pair o f nodes
becom es a challenging task because the nodes can m ove random ly w ithin the netw ork. A path
th at was considered optim al at a given point in tim e m ight not w ork at all a few m om ents later.
Ideally then, a good routing protocol is one that can deal w ith the typical lim itations o f m obile
ad hoc w ireless netw orks, w hich include high pow er consum ption, low bandw idth, high error
rates and highly dynam ic topologies. A ccording to [4] a w ell-designed routing algorithm fo r ad
hoc w ireless netw ork m ust have the follow ing qualities;
♦ E xecutes distributedly
♦ P rovides loop-free routes
♦ P rovides m ultiple routes to reduce congestion
♦ E stablishes routes quickly
♦ M inim izes com m unication overhead to conserve bandw idth and pow er
T raditional routing protocols in packet sw itched netw orks are based on link-state or
d istance-vector routing algorithm s. B oth algorithm s allow a host to find the next hop neig h b o r
to reach the destination through m inim um num ber o f hops, that is, the shortest path. T he
m essage com plexity o f protocols based on these algorithm s is high and hence they n eed to be
m odified to m ake it suitable for the lim ited bandw idth o f w ireless links. A lso, the rapid
changes in topologies m ake it im portant to find routes quickly, even if the route m ay no t be the
optim um . A d hoc routing protocols are based on this philosophy. Since the 7 0 ’s researches on
11
the D A R PA P R N E T project[5], num erous protocols have been developed that take into account
the characteristics o f w ireless netw orks. R outing for w ireless ad-hoc netw orks can generally be
categorized as table-driven (proactive) routing, on-dem and (reactive) routing and som e o th er
m iscellaneous routing protocols. A s show n in Fig. 1.2.1.
Ad Hoc Routing Protocols
On-Demand Routine Protocols

Proactive Routing Protocols M iscellaneous Protocols
1. Dynamic Source Routing
1. Destination Sequenced 1. Zone Routing Protocol
Protocol (DSR)
Distance Vector Routing (ZRP)
2. Ad Hoc On Dem and Distance
Protocol (DSDV)
Vector (AODV)
2. The W ireless Routing Ants based routing
3. Temporarily Ordered Routing
Protocol (WRP) protocol
Algorithm (TORA)
3. Clusterhead Gateway Switch networks
4. Associativity Based Routing
Routing (CGSR)
Protocol (ABR)
4. The Fisheye State Routing
5. Cluster Based Routing Protocol
Protocol (FSR)
(GBR)
6. Signal Stability Routing Protocol
(SSA)
7. Adaptive Multipath Source
Routing Protocol (MSR)
F igure 1.2.1. C lassification o f M obile A d hoc N etw ork R outing P rotocols
Table driven routing protocols attem pt to m aintain consistent, up-do-date routing
inform ation from each node to every other node in the netw ork. Each node needs to m aintain
one or m ore tables to store routing inform ation, and they react to any change in the topology
by propagating updates throughout the netw ork in order to m aintain a consistent topology view,
even if no traffic is affected by the change. T hese protocols require periodic control m essages
to m aintain routes to every node in the netw ork. T he rate at w hich these control m essages are
12
sent m ust reflect the dynam ics o f the netw ork in order to m aintain valid routes. Thus, scarce
resources such as pow er and link bandw idth w ill be used m ore frequently for control traffic as
node m obility increases. D estination S equenced D istance Vector Protocol (D SD V ) [6] and
W ireless R outing P rotocol(W R P)[7] are tw o w idely know n table driven routing protoco ls for
w ireless netw orks. D SD V is based on the classic B ellm an-Ford routing algorithm [8], in
addition to w hich it uses sequence num bers to distinguish stale routes from new routes, thus
avoiding the form ation o f loops. WRP, on the other hand avoids the “counting-to-in fin ity ”
problem by m aintaining second-to-last hop inform ation about every destination node. H ow ever,
as show n in [9], table driven routing protocols that aim to m aintain consistent inform ation at
all tim es usually suffer from high control overhead.
The IE T F w orking group for M obile ad hoc netw orking (M A N ET) has provided im petus
fo r routing protocols in ad-hoc netw orks. M ost o f the routing protocols proposed in the
M A N E T w orking group are on-dem and routing protocols. O n-dem and routing protoco ls are
the ones that attem pt to create a route only w hen needed. They are designed w ith the aim o f
reducing control overhead, thus increasing bandw idth and conserving p ow er at the m obile
hosts. H igh routing overhead usually has a significant perform ance im pact in low bandw idth
netw orks, and can cause netw ork congestion that in turn leads to data packet delay and
eventually data loss. As m ore data packet are dropped due to netw ork congestio n the
throughput o f the netw ork will drop down. In on dem and protocols only w hen a host has data
pack et to send to a destination it will initiate a route discovery process w ithin the netw ork.
O nce a route has been established, it is m aintained by a route m aintenance procedure until the
destination becom es inaccessible along every possible path from the source. T herefore, the
13
routing is source-initiated as opposed to table-driven routing protocols that are destination
initiated.
T here are several recent exam ples o f the on-dem and routing approach. T hese exam ples
include A d-H oc O n-D em and D istance V ector(A O D V )[10], A ssociativity B ased
R o u tin g (A B R )[ll], D ynam ic Source R outing(D SR )[12], Tem porally O rdered R outing
A lgorithm (T O R A )[13] and Z one R outing Protocol(ZR P)[14]. T he routing protocols differ on
the specific m echanism s used to dissem inate flood-search packets and their responses, cache
the inform ation heard from other n o d es’ searches, determ ine the cost o f a link, and determ ine
the existence o f neighbor. H ow ever, all on-dem and routing protocols use flood search
m essages that either: (1) give sources the entire paths to destinations, w hich are then used in
source-routed data packets (e.g., D SR ); or (2) provide only the distances and next hops to
destinations, validating them with sequence num bers (e.g., A O D V ) or tim e stam ps (e.g.,
TO R A ).
T he advantage o f on-dem and protocols is that they require less m aintenance overhead, but
the route acquisition tim e is very high and the global search procedure requires quite a b it o f
control overhead. Thus, these m ay not be ideal for real-tim e com m unication. Fortunately, a
novel solution based on A nt-like m obile agents was proposed lately [15]. This fam ily o f
protocols is inspired by the ant or sw arm intelligence, w hich appears in social insect species.
M obile agents (M A s) are autonom ous, intelligent program s that m ove through the netw ork,
p erform ing actions on their creato r’s b ehalf [16]. D eploying m obile agents fo r netw ork routing
tasks has several advantages over the traditional m ethods, as presented in [17]. T he usage o f
m obile agents in a w ireless ad-hoc environm ent is even m ore appealing [15], because they
14
easily fit into the distributed nature o f M A N ETs, providing adaptivity, flexibility, robustness
and even efficiency, w hich are prim e requisites in such environm ent. In this thesis, the
suitability o f m obile ag e n ts’ application in w ireless m obile ad hoc n etw orks’ routing problem
w ill be argued.
1.3 C ontributions O f This Thesis
As the introduction above, the dynam ics o f w ireless ad hoc netw orks as a consequence o f
m obility and disconnection o f m obile hosts pose a num ber o f problem s in designing proper
routing schem es fo r effective com m unication betw een any source and destination [18]. Since
the m obile agents paradigm was brought in this field, the nature advantages o f the m obile
agents ease the developm ent o f the routing protocols. T his thesis is based on a hybrid routing
protocol [19], w hich uses m obile agents and reactive route discovery, introduced a m ore
realistic solution to this problem . H ow ever, the m obile agents w ere not fully exploited in that
protocol. In this thesis research, w e will propose an im proved M ultiA nts-A O D V routing
protocol based on ant-A O D V . T he goal o f our design is to reduce the end-to-end delay and
ro u te discovery latency. T o achieve a better perform ance, the com m unication schem e am ong
the agents is strengthened. W e also present an im proved navigation algorithm fo r m obile
agents to update the routing tables m ore efficiently. W e extend the routing table to reduce the
latency o f routing discovery in case o f link failures, and to increase the “goodput” by the
introduction o f the “notification o f link failures” into the ants based routing protocols.
15
1.4 T he O rganization O f This Thesis
The first chapter has given a brief introduction to m obile ad hoc netw orks, and the related
routing protocols for M A N ETs. T he objectives and the organization o f this thesis are also
described in this chapter.
In the second chapter, the topics related with the m obile agents are presented. T hey include
the overview o f m obile agents: its definition, advantages, and applications. N ext, the routing
algorithm s using m obile agents are introduced. Finally, the benefits from m u ltip le-ag en ts’
co llaborations are discussed.
The third chapter w ill talk about the conventional routing protocols fo r M A N ETs.
F o llow ing tw o classes o f the protocols, several m ajor typical exam ples in each class are
presented. A t last in this chapter, A O D V is em phasized in details. T heir goodness and
shortcom ings are also stated briefly.
In the fourth chapter, an im portant and prom ising A nt-A O D V routing protocol is argued
fully, and to overcom e its draw backs, an im proved navigation algorithm fo r the ants-based
routing algorithm com posed o f the hybrid protocol is proposed and analyzed com prehensively.
B esides, to strengthen the advantage o f the hybrid protocol, som e im proving m ethods are
applied to the algorithm and data structures.
The introduction o f the sim ulator and the results o f the sim ulation based com pariso n s are
p resented to dem onstrate that the proposed navigation algorithm dose im prove the perform ance
o f the protocol. Finally, the last chapter will com e up w ith the conclusion o f this thesis and the
future w orks.
CHAPTER 2
R O U T IN G U SIN G M O B IL E A G EN TS
2.1 T he C oncept o f M obile A gents and Its A dvantages
T he key features o f m obile agents that distinguish them from traditional distributed
pro gram m ing are; m obility; netw ork aw areness; com m unication; intelligence; reactivity;
autonom ous; goal-oriented; tem porally continuous; learning; flexible; and character [20,21].
M obile agent technology has been proposed for a num ber o f applications such as Internet-w ide
co llaborative system s [22], netw ork m anagem ent [23], m onitoring system s [24], inform ation
retrieval [25], intrusion detection system s [26], and e-com m erce [27]. M obile agents are ideal
for such environm ents because o f their ability to support asynchronous com m unication and
flexible query processing. This is because user tasks can be delegated to m obile agents, w hen a
m obile client is disconnected. Also, in certain cases, m obile agents can reduce netw ork traffic
co m pared to the traditional client-server approaches and m aintain load balancing, thus increase
perform ance o f netw ork nodes especially in w ireless ad-hoc netw orks.
2.1.1 W hat Is A M obile A gent?
T he m obile agent concept is not new, and has been proposed to overcom e certain
lim itations o f traditionally designed distributed system s, especially client/server system s, and
provide b etter flexibility by adding m obility o f code, artificial intelligence, and im prove data
16
17
and netw ork m anagem ent possibilities.
T he extensive researches on the social insects show that the social insects have the
follow ing features; (1) they can respond to internal perturbations and external challenges; (2)
failure o f one or several individuals usually does not jeopardize a colony's functioning; (3) they
h ave the ability to solve problem s, som etim es difficult problem s, in a distributed way, w ith o u t
any central control, on the basis on local inform ation. G iven the exhibited adaptability,
flexibility and robustness properties and the im pressive ecological success o f social insects
[28], it does no t seem unreasonable to try to transfer current know ledge about how insect
societies function into the context o f engineering and distributed artificial intelligence.
Inherited w ith the nature advantages o f social insects, in the past few years, m obile agents
have proven to be an attractive tool in the design o f various types o f distributed services. A
m obile agent is a program that can m igrate from one node to another, perform various types o f
operations at these nodes, and can take autonom ous routing decisions. In contrast w ith
m essages that are passive, an agent is an active entity that can be com pared w ith a m essenger.
T hus, a m obile agent is an autonom ous entity that has the ability to com m unicate w ith other
agents and host system s. A m obile agent consists o f its code and state, w hich carries w ith it
d uring the self-initiated m igration.
A typical agent m odel consists o f the follow ing six com ponents [29]:
1. T he identifier id, usually the sam e as the in itiato r’s id. T he id is unnecessary, if
there is a single agent, but is essential to distinguish betw een m ultiple agents in the
sam e system .
2. T he agent program A
18
3. T he briefcase B containing a set o f variables
4. T he previous process PR E visited by the agent
5. T he next process to visit N E X T that is com puted after every hop
6. A supervisory program S for bookkeeping purposes.
H ow ever, in reality a m obile agent system should provide an environm ent in w hich m obile
agents can exist. This environm ent is called agent server, w hich hides the vendor specific
aspects o f its host platform and offers standardized services to an agent that is docking on to
such a server. Services include access to local resources and applications, com m unication w ith
o ther agents via m essage passing, m igration, basic security services, creation and term ination
o f agents. T he infrastructure is set agent servers that run on top o f platform s (nodes) w ithin a
possibly heterogeneous netw ork (Figure 2.1). T he platform that an agent originates is called
hom e platform and is assum ed as a trusted environm ent for that agent.
llonie-N ode A .Agent
.Agent server
Network
Agent
F igure 2.1. M obile A gents System
19
Som e w ell-know n m obile agent system s are; M O L E [30], Telescript [31], A glets
W orkbench [32], ffM A IN [33], and D ’A gents [34]. D espite the fact that these system s w ere
b u ilt to serve the sam e purpose, they have m any differences in term s o f term inology, concepts,
and architecture. Som e o f these system s w ere developed in academ ic environm ents and others
w ere developed by the industry. N evertheless, som e o f these system s have already disappeared
(such as Telescript, Kafta, or O dyssey), others w ill disappear, w hile others should em erge in a
n ear future [35].
2.1.2 T he M obile A gents’ A dvantages
C om pared w ith the traditional distributed system s w hich are b uilt upon the stationary
program and pass data back and forth across a netw ork, m obile agents are program s th at they
them selves m ove from node to node: the com putation m oves, not ju s t the attendant data. So it
has the follow ing three im portant properties:
1. A gents encapsulate a thread o f execution along w ith a bundle o f code and data. Each
agent runs independently o f all others, is self-contained from a program m atic perspective,
and preserves all o f its state w hen it m oves from one netw ork node to another.
2. A n agent is able to cooperate w ith other agents in order to perform com plex o r dynam ic
tasks. A gents m ay read from and w rite to a shared b lock o f m em ory on each node, and can
use this facility both to coordinate w ith other agents executing on that node and to leave
inform ation behind fo r subsequent visitors.
3. M obile agents can identify and use lim ited resources prepared for them w here they lend
now. A fter m obile agents left, all resources occupied by them are com pletely released.
Such resources like the neighbor inform ation o f the node w here the m obile agent is staying
20
and it can be used by the agent.
4. T he m obile agents can be im plem ented in a very sm all size, typically about several ten
kilobytes or even sm aller. This can be taken to m ake good use the bandw idth resource.
U sing sm all, self-directed, m obile agents as building blocks allow s us to design a netw ork
architecture that is flexible in several w ays. First, because o f the fundam entally distributed
nature o f collections o f agents, our architecture can scale upw ards in size quite gracefully.
Second, because agent populations can change over tim e, new usage contexts and m odels can
be accom m odated. Finally, because all system interaction is m ediated by agents, m ultiple
netw ork m anagem ent strategies can coexist and co-evolve.
Therefore, m obile agents have the ability to support asynchronous com m unication and
flexible query processing. T he m obile user can assign a task to a m obile agent and w hen the
agent feels that there is com m unication availability it will roam the netw ork and fulfill the task
delegated by its user. In this way, a m obile node requires less com m unication connectivity than
it w ould need follow ing traditional client/server approaches. A nother equally im portant reason
for m obile agents in w ireless netw orks is that they can reduce netw ork traffic.
2.2 M obile A gents A pplications
So far m obile agents are best view ed as a general tool for realizing arbitrary distributed
applications. This view is reflected in the range o f applications in w hich m obile agents are used.
P erhaps the m ost com m on exam ples o f m obile code are Java applets. Jav a applets are
interactive applications that can be dynam ically pulled across the netw ork w ith a Java-enab led
W W W brow ser. H ow ever, Java applets are not true m obile agents since they m igrate only once.
21
True m obile agent system s include Telescript [36,37], Tacom a[38], M obile service
A gents(M S A ) [39], and A gent Tel [40,41], Telescript agents are currently used fo r netw ork
m anagem ent, active e-m ail, electronic com m erce, and business process m anagem ent. In
n etw ork m anagem ent, a T elescript agent m ight carry a softw are upgrade onto a m achine along
w ith the code to perform the installation. The m ost visible use o f Tacom a is Storm C ast, a
system for distributed w eather sim ulation in w hich the volum es o f data are so im m ense as to
m ake data m ovem ent im practical. A gent Tel has been used prim arily in inform ation-retrieval
applications and is also being used in w orkflow applications, in w hich an agent carries a
m ulti-step task description from one site to another, interacting w ith the user at each site in
order to carry out that u s e r’s part o f the task [42].
B esides these applications, M A based algorithm s w ere also used to solve classical routing
problem s such as: T raveling Salesm an Problem , Vehicle R outing P roblem , Q uadratic
A ssignm ent P roblem , connection-oriented/connectionless routing, sequential ordering, graph
coloring and shortest com m on super sequence. Furtherm ore, M A based routing protocols for
fixed, w ired netw orks also presented the out perform ance over the traditional m ethods.
2.3 T he O verview O f The Classic R outing A lgorithm
H istorically, the routing algorithm s used in com m unication netw orks have evolved from
static routing in w hich “good routes’’ are com puted off-line to m ore dynam ic routing in w hich
the routes are com puted online to take the node congestion level into account. C lassical routing
protocols w ere successively based on Static R outing, A daptive D istance V ector R outin g in
w hich the routing tables are regularly updated and A daptive L ink State R outing w hich also
22
m aintains a m ap o f netw ork topology and load pattern on each o f its nodes. H ow ever, these
routing algorithm s react rather slow ly to changes in the netw ork load or topology and they are
prone to oscillations.
2.3.1 Static R outing
B asic static routing in a com m unication netw ork is equivalent to finding the shortest paths
betw een the nodes o f an associated graph. T he m etric used here can be the nu m b er o f hops
b etw een tw o nodes, the physical distance, the transm ission delay, etc. T he classical D ijkstra
algorithm [43] solves the shortest path problem in polynom ial tim e. It can be used to build the
routing tables required by the router to transm it entering packets tow ard their destination. T he
routing tables are b uilt from the so called distance vector, w hich assigns the optim al distances
to each destination for every outgoing entry.
T he m ethod only takes the topology into account bu t the netw ork loads also n eed to be
considered w hen the lines only have a lim ited transm ission capacity or bandw idth. A nd w hile
finding the shortest path can be solved in polynom ial tim e, flow optim ization, i.e. m axim izing
the num ber o f packets transiting in the netw ork per second (throughput), w hen lines have such
transm ission lim itations is know n to be a N P -com plete problem [44] for w hich existing
heuristics are still quite com plex.
23
2.3.2 A daptive D istance V ector Routing:
F igure 2.2.T he B ellm an-F ord algorithm updates the distance vectors.
D ynam ic distance vector routing periodically updates the distance vectors by exchanging
inform ation betw een neighbors. T he B ellm an-F ord distance vector routing algorithm [45] w as
the original A R PA N ET routing algorithm and was also used in Internet under the nam e RIP. It
is based on the principle o f dynam ic program m ing [46]: an optim al path is m ade o f
sub-optim al paths. E ach node i periodically updates its distance vector from the distance v ector
regularly sent by its neighbors as follow s:
/ ^ n ,n W — Vi; , ,
W here D ‘n , a ( t ) is the cost estim ated by i for delivering a packet from i to d by the w ay o f the
neighbor n at tim e t as show n on F igure 1, and w here di n is the know n distance betw een I and
its n eighbor n.
This procedure m ay converge to the correct answ er slowly, and particular this proced u re is
know n to react prom ptly to good new s (e.g. a new transm ission lines) but slow ly to bad new s
(e.g. a link failure), and it is also prone to oscillations [47]. F or these reasons, it is now adays
often replaced by link state routing.
24
2.3.3 A daptive L ink State R outing
T he link state algorithm essentially m aintains a dynam ic m ap o f the com plete netw ork.
This dynam ic m ap is replicated on each routed and is used to estim ate the optim al distances
betw een nodes (usually w ith D ijkstra’s algorithm ). Each node periodically broadcasts its
routing inform ation to all destinations w ith a distributed flooding m echanism [47] trying to
m inim ize the num ber o f re-transm issions. T he m etric usually estim ates the delays betw een a
node and its neighbors based on the queue lengths on transm itting and receiving nodes. T he
O S P F protocol, w hich is increasingly being used in the Internet, uses such a link state
algorithm .
2.4 A nts B ased R outing A lgorithm
O nce a packet is required to be sent to a destination (point-to-point) or to m ultiple
destinations (m ulticast), the router should recom m end a good path (or even the shortest path)
for sending this packet over the netw ork. As searching for the optim al path in a stationary
n etw ork is already a difficult problem [48], the searching for the optim al path in a faulty
netw ork or m obile netw ork w ill be m uch m ore difficult. T he ant routing algorithm [54], [49],
[50], [51], [52], [53] is a recently proposed routing algorithm for use in these environm ents.
T he basic idea is sim ilar to the path searching process o f an ant. O nce a request fo r sending a
m essage is received from a server, the server will generate a num ber o f m obile agents like ants.
T hose agents will then m ove out from the server to search for the corresponding destination
host. O nce an agent has reached the destination, it traverses all the w ay back to the source host,
the server, follow ing the path searched and leaves m arks (just like the pherom one) on the hosts
25
along the path. W hen all agents have been back, the source host w ill evaluate the costs o f those
paths collected and pick up the b est path. If a connection is required, the server w ill send out
an allocator agent to reserve resources from the hosts along the best path.
T he philosophy o f ants based routing algorithm is that since the goal o f every routing
algorithm is to direct traffic from sources to destinations m axim izing netw ork perform an ce
w hile m inim izing costs, the general problem o f determ ining an optim al routing algorithm can
be stated as a m ulti-objective optim ization problem in a non-stationary stochastic environm ent.
F urtherm ore, inform ation propagation delays and the difficulty to com pletely characterize the
n etw ork dynam ics under arbitrary traffic patterns, m ake the general routing problem
intrinsically distributed. R outing decisions can only be m ake on the basis o f local and
approxim ate inform ation about the current and the future netw ork states. T hese features m ake
the problem w ell adapted to be solved follow ing the rationale o f the an ts’ intelligence. T he
intelligence gives rise to com plex and often intelligent behavior through com plex interaction o f
thousands o f autonom ous ant m em bers. Interaction is based on prim itive instincts w ith no
supervision. T he end result is accom plishm ent o f very com plex form s o f social behavior and
fu lfillm ent o f a num ber o f optim ization and other tasks.
2.4.1 Two Types O f A nts B ased R outing A lgorithm s
T he ants based routing algorithm s can be classified tw o types depending on w hen the
distance vector is updated. This update can either be perform ed by routing agents going from
the source to the destination— forw ard routing, or by agents retracing their w ay b ack to their
source— round trip routing. R ound trip routing is based on tw o sets o f hom ogeneous m obile
agents, respectively called the forw ard agents and the backpropagating agents. T h e forw ard
26
agents share the sam e queues as data packets and use the sam e routing tables. T hey keep track
o f their jo u rn ey and the associated costs betw een hops in an internal stack. F orw ard agents also
im plem ent a m echanism to avoid loops in their routes. T he backpropagating agents retrace
th eir w ay back to the source and update the distance vector accordingly. T hese backtracking
agents how ever have a higher priority over data for a faster propagation o f the accum ulated
inform ation. T he typical algorithm in this class is the A ntN et system proposed by Di C aro and
D origo [53], w hich has been show n to outperform m any aspects o f the O S P F and
B ellm an-F ord routing algorithm s.
H ow ever, backw ard routing is intrinsically slow since it requires the agent to reach its
destination before any update to begin. This slow round trip reaction to changes in the netw ork
m ight induce oscillations. F orw ard routing offers an alternative by rem oving the n eed o f round
trips. It w as first introduced by Schoonderw oerd et al. [55] in the case o f virtual circu it based
sym m etric netw orks. It uses a population o f sim ple m obile agents w ith behaviors m odeled on
the trail laying abilities o f ants. T he ants m ove across the netw ork betw een random ly chosen
pairs o f nodes; as they m ove they deposit sim ulated pherom ones as a function o f their distance
from their source node, and the congestion encountered on their journey. They select th eir path
at each interm ediate node according the distribution o f sim ulated pherom ones at each node.
T he M A s based routing algorithm s for M A N ETs w hich will be talked about in ch ap ter fo u r is
very sim ilar as this one. This protocol show ed very prom ising results and turned out to be
highly adaptive in dynam ic netw ork environm ents.
2.4.2 T he O verview O f The A ntN et A lgorithm s
Suppose a datagram netw ork, w ith N nodes, being s a generic source code th at generates an
27
agent (or ant) tow ard a destination d. A routing table is organized as in vector-distance
algorithm s, but in the table, a probability value Pm w hich express the goodness o f choosing n
as next node w hen the destination node is i. E ach entry is stored for each pair (i, n) w ith the
constraint:
Z P»< = 1, i £ [1, N], Nk = {neighbors (k)};

n ENk
Two types o f ants are defined:
a) F orw ard A nt, or Fs->d, w hich will travel from a source s to a destination d. The
identifier o f every visited node k and the tim e elapsed since its launching tim e to
arrive at the k-th node, are pushed into a m em ory stack Ss->d(k) and inserted in a
dictionary structure Ds->d, carried b y the agent.
b) B ackw ard Ant, or Bs->d, that will be generated by a forw ard ant Fs->d in the
destination d. It w ill return to s through the path used by Fs->d. In its w ay to s, Bs->d
updates routing tables o f the visited nodes using the inform ation already collected by
F s-> d -
Each traveling agent selects the next hop node using the inform ation stored in the routing
table. I f the node chosen (proportionally to the goodness o f each neighbor node) w as already
visited, a uniform ly random selection am ong the neighbors is applied.
If a cycle is detected, that is, if an ant is forced to return in an already visited node, the
cy c le’s nodes are popped from the a n t’s stack and all the m em ory about them destroyed. Bs->d
updates the k routing table and list o f trips, for the entries regarding to nodes k ’ betw een k and
d inclusive, according to the data carried in Ss->d(k’), increasing probabilities associated to path
used and decreases other paths probabilities, by m ean o f a criteria explained in [56].
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2.5 T he B enefits From M ultiple A gents' C ollaborations
A nother very useful and im portant feature o f m ultiple agents m odule is the collaborations
am ong the M A s. This approach is inspired by the w ork o f biologists studying social insects,
w ho have uncovered the m echanism s controlling the foraging behaviors o f ants. T he m ost
im portant m ethod is the laying and sensing o f trails o f p h ero m o n es-sp ecialized chem ical
substances w hich are laid in am ounts determ ined by local circum stances, and w hich by their
local concentration subsequently directly influence an ant's choice o f route. T he principle
behind these interactions is called stigmergy, or com m unication through the environm ent [56].
A n exam ple [57] is pherom one laying on trails follow ed by ants. P herom one is a p o ten t
form o f horm one that can be sensed by ants as they travel along trails. It attracts ants and
therefore ants tend to follow trails that have high pherom one concentrations. T his causes an
autocatalytic reaction, i.e., one that is accelerated by itself. A nts attracted by the pherom one
w ill lay m ore o f the sam e on the sam e trail, causing even m ore ants to be attracted. T he
tw o-bridge experim ent dem onstrates the function o f the stigmergy. W hen food source is
separated from an ant nest by tw o bridges R1 and R2, w here R1 being longer than R 2, then the
shorter bridge R 2 is selected by the colony (if R1 is sufficiently longer than R 2). T his is
attributed to the trail-laying and trail follow ing characteristic o f ants in w hich ants lay
p h erom one as described above. This attracts the other ants. T he ants returning first to the nest
w ould have laid the pherom one tw ice on the shorter path hence influencing outgoing ants to
tak e the shouter route instead o f the longer one. E ven if the long bridge is presented first, the
shorter one will still be selected subsequently as the pherom one trace on the longer branch
w ould evaporate and it w ould be difficult to m aintain a stable pherom one trail on a lo n g er path
29
than on a shorter one. T herefore, as a result o f this “auto-catalytic” effect, the shortest path will
em erge rapidly. It is presented in fig.2.3 in below.
y-'
^ îh Pherom one
R1
F igure 2.3. A Tw o-Bridge E xperim ent D em onstration
A nother form o f stigm ergy alters the environm ent in such a m anner as to prom ote fu rth er
sim ilar action by the agents. This process is dubbed task-related stigm ergy. A n exam ple is sand
g rain laying by term ites w hen constructing nests [58]. In the initial stages o f construction,
term ites lay sand grains at random locations. This stim ulates further laying by o th er m em bers
o f the sw arm , until a single heap o f sand grains random ly reaches a critical m ass th at is larger
than its neighboring heaps. A t that point, m ost term ites are attracted to that specific heap,
thereby selecting that specific site for construction o f their nest.
As the description above, the ant intelligence boasts a num ber o f advantages due to the use
o f m obile agents and stigmergy. T hese are:
30
1. Scalability: P opulation o f the agents can be adapted according to the netw ork size.
S calability is also prom oted by local and distributed agent interactions.
2. F ault tolerance: Swarm intelligent processes do not rely on a centralized control
m echanism . T herefore the loss o f a few nodes or links does not result in catastrophic
failure, but rather leads to graceful, scalable degradation.
3. A daptation: A gents can change, die or reproduce, according to netw ork changes.
4. Speed: C hanges in the netw ork can be propagated very fast, in contrast w ith the
B ellm an-F ord algorithm [45].
5. M odularity: A gents act independently o f other netw ork layers.
6. A utonom y: L ittle or no hum an supervision is required.
7. Parallelism : A g e n t’s operations are inherently parallel.
T hese properties m ake ant intelligence very attractive for ad-hoc w ireless netw orks. T hey
also render ant intelligence suitable for a variety o f other applications, apart from routing,
including robotics [59] and optim ization [60].
CHAPTER 3
C O N V E N T IO N A L R O U T IN G A L G O R IT H M F O R M A N ETS
As presented in chapter 1, the routing protocols for ad hoc netw orks can be categorized in
tw o ways: (1) table-driven and on-dem and (source initiated) based on the w ay routers obtain
inform ation and (2) link state and distance vector based on the type o f inform ation th at they
use. R outers running a distance-vector protocol use distance or path inform ation to destinations,
w hereas routers running a link-state use topology inform ation to m ake routing decisions. In
this thesis, w e will review the protocols in the first way o f the categorization.
Table-driven protocols are traditionally proactive in nature, w hich find routes betw een all
source-destination pairs regardless o f the use or need fo r such routes. O n-dem and protoco ls are
reactive in nature, in the sense that they initiate routing activities only in the presence o f data
packets in need o f a route. A lso there are protocols, w hich are hybrid betw een proactiv e and
reactive protocols. They com bine the advantages o f both.
3.1 Table D riven A lgorithm s
C haracteristics o f table-driven protocols are that they attem pt to m aintain consistent,
up-to-date routing inform ation from each node to every other node in the netw ork. T hese
protocols require each node to m aintain one or m ore tables to store routing inform ation. T hey
31
32
respond to changes in netw ork topology by propagating updates throughout the netw ork in
order to m aintain a consistent netw ork view. T he aspects in w hich each protocol differs are in
the num ber o f necessary routing-related tables and the m ethods by w hich changes in the
netw ork structure are broadcast. P rotocols that keep track o f routes for all destinations in the ad
hoc netw ork have the advantage that com m unications w ith arbitrary destinations experience
m inim al initial delay from the point o f view o f application. W hen the application starts, a route
can be im m ediately selected from the route table. They are called proactive because they store
route inform ation even before it is needed. T he disadvantage w ith table-driven protocols is that
they create additional control traffic that is needed to continually update stale route entries. An
increased control overhead gives rise to bandw idth resources w astage, congestion in the
netw ork and possible loss o f data packets, retransm ission o f data packets and fu rth er delays.
H ere are som e popular table-driven protocols below:
3.1.1 D SD V
D SD V [61] is based on the classical distributed B ellm an-F ord routing algorithm . D S D V is
a hop-by-hop distance vector routing protocol requiring each node to periodically broadcast
routing updates. T he key advantage o f D SD V over traditional distance vector protocols is that
it guarantees loop-freedom . The routing table m aintained in each D S D V node lists the n ex t hop
fo r each reachable destination. D S D V tags each route w ith a sequence nu m b er and consid ers a
route w ith a greater sequence num ber m ore favorable than others w ith a low er num ber. O r in
the case that all routes have equal sequence num bers, the one w ith a low er m etrics w ill be
chosen. Each node in the netw ork advertises a m onotonically increasing even sequence nu m b er
for itself. W hen a node S decides that its route to a destination D has broken, it advertises the
33
route fo r D w ith an infinite m etric and a sequence num ber one greater than its sequence
n u m ber for the route that has broken (m aking an odd sequence num ber). This causes any node
A routing packets through S to incorporate the infinite-m etric route into its routing table until
node A hears route to D w ith a higher sequence num ber.
To reduce the potentially large volum e o f netw ork traffic produced by routing updates,
D SD V uses tw o different types o f update. Full updates are broadcast periodically and include
every entry in the routing table. Increm ental updates include only those routing entries that
h ave changed since the last full update. Increm ental updates are triggered w hen significant
changes are m ade to the routing table. F or instance, a route invalidation is consid ered
sufficiently im portant to trigger an update. Still, D SD V has been show n to have very high
routing overhead com pared to on-dem and routing protocols. W hile the num ber o f routing
packets transm itted p er second w ill be sm aller for DSDV, the large num ber o f routing entries in
each update packet accounts for the higher overhead.
3.1.2 C luster-head G atew ay Sw itch R outing (C G SR )
C G SR [62] uses D SD V as the underlying routing schem e but differs from it in the type o f
addressing and netw ork organization schem e. It m odifies D SD V by using a
cluster-head-to-gatew ay routing approach to route traffic from source to destination. T he
m otivation behind the C G SR protocol is that clustered based control structures pro m o te m ore
efficient use o f resources in controlling large dynam ic netw orks. To achieve this, the physical
n etw ork is transform ed into a virtual netw ork o f interconnected node clusters. Each clu ster has
one or m ore leaders acting its b eh alf to m ake control decisions fro cluster m em bers. C G S R is a
clu stered m ulti-hop m obile w ireless netw ork w ith several heuristic routing schem es. G atew ay
34
n odes are those nodes that are w ithin com m unication range o f tw o or m ore cluster-heads. A
p acket sent by a node is first routed to its cluster-head, and then the packet is routed from the
cluster-head to another cluster-head through a gatew ay, and so on until the cluster-head o f the
destination node is reached. T he packet is then transm itted to the destination. Each node keeps
a cluster m em ber table, w here it stores the destination cluster-head fo r each m obile node in the
netw ork. E ach node periodically broadcast these cluster m em ber tables using the D SD V
algorithm . In addition to the cluster m em ber table, each node m aintains a routing table to
determ ine the n ext hop in order to reach the destination. O n receiving a packet, a node w ill
co n sult its cluster m em ber table and routing table to determ ine the n earest cluster-head along
the route to the destination. N ext the node will check its routing table to d eterm ine the n ex t hop
to reach the selected cluster head. It then transm its the packet to this node. U pdates are need ed
fo r both routing and cluster m em ber tables in CGSR.
H ow ever, the frequent cluster head changes can adversely affect the perform ance o f the
routing protocol as the nodes becom e busy in cluster-head selection rather than relaying the
packets. To avoid invoking cluster-head reselection every tim e the cluster m em bership changes,
a least cluster change (LC C ) algorithm is introduced. U sing the L C C algorithm , clu ster heads
only change w hen tw o cluster-heads com e into contact or w hen a node m oves out o f all o ther
clu ster heads.
3.1.3 W ireless R outing Protocol (W RP)
In W R P [63], each node in the netw ork is responsible for m aintaining fo u r tables, w hich
are D istance table. R outing table. L ink-cost table, and M essage R etransm ission L ist (M R L )
table. N odes learn o f the existence o f their neighbors from the receipt o f acknow ledgem ents
35
and other m essages. Flow o f ‘h ello ’ m essages w ithin specified tim e intervals are used to ensure
connectivity am ong the nodes. M obiles inform each other o f link changes through the use of
update m essages. A n update m essage is sent only betw een neighboring nodes and contains a
list o f updates, w hich include the destination, the distance to the destination and the
predecessor o f the destination, and as w ell as a list o f responses indicating w hich m obiles
should acknow ledge the update. A retransm ission o f an update m essage is based on the
M essage-retransm ission-L ist table records. E ach entry in this table contains the sequence
n u m ber o f the update m essage, a retransm ission counter, and an acknow ledgem ent required
flag vector w ith one entry p er neighbor and a list o f updates sent in the update m essage.
In its distance table, a node A keeps track o f the distances to every destination node v ia the
neighboring node, N, the dow nstream neighbor o f node N. The routing table o f A contains the
d istance to each destination node from node A, the predecessor and the successor o f node A on
this path, and a tag to identify if the entry is a sim ple path, a loop, or invalid. T he upstream and
dow nstream nodes are kept to check the link consistency and loop-freed property o f the routes.
T he link-cost table is used to keep the costs o f links to the neighboring nodes w ith the nu m b er
o f tim e-outs since the last com m unication w ith the nodes. If a node dose not have any change
in its lin k s’ states, it broadcasts a hello m essage after a tim e-out period to ensure connectivity.
M R L is used to keep track o f the acknow ledgem ents for the update m essages received from the
neighboring nodes. E ach entry in the M R L has a sequence num ber o f the update m essage, a
retransm ission counter, and an ack-required flag for each o f the neighbors o f the node.
36
3.2 O n-D em and A lgorithm s
O n-dem and protocols are proposed to overcom e the disadvantages o f table-driven
protocols. W ith these protocols routers m aintain path inform ation for only those destinations
th at they need to contact as source or as a relay o f inform ation. O n-dem and routing has tw o
m ajor com ponents: route discovery and route m aintenance. W hen a node requires a route to a
destination, it initiates a route discovery process. The route discovery function requires a
source to use som e form o f flooding. U pon receiving a query, the transit nodes learn the path to
the source and enter the route in their forw arding tables. T he destination node responds using
the path traversed by the query. Each discovered route is stored in the route cache fo r a short
lifetim e. R oute m aintenance is responsible for reacting to topological changes in the netw ork,
and its im plem entation differs from one algorithm to another. Som e popular on-dem and
protocols are outlined below.
3.2.1 D ynam ic Source R outing (DSR)
T he D SR [64] protocol uses source routing to deliver data packets. R outes are stored in a
route cache, and each cache entry contains the entire path to be traversed to the destination.
W hen a data packet is originated, the source places the entire path in the packet header. T he
interm ediate nodes along this path sim ply forw ard the packet to the next hop specified in the
header. A voiding routing loops is clearly trivial with the use o f source routing.
If a source dose no t have a route to the destination in its cache, it begins a route discovery
process by broadcasting a route request (R R EQ ) packet. Each node receiving the R R E Q
searches its ow n route cache for a route to the requested destination. If no route is found, it
adds its ow n address to the hop sequence contained in the R R E Q header and broadcasts the
37
R R E Q again. A R R E Q is tagged w ith an identification num ber that each node records so th at it
w ill not broadcast the request m ore than once.
T he R R E Q propagates through the netw ork until it reaches either the destination o r an
interm ediate node w hich has a route to the destination in its route cache. T he R R E Q h ead er
contains a record o f the hops taken from the source, so this route can be reversed and used to
u n icast a route reply (R R EP) packet back to the source. In the case that bi-directional links
cannot be assum ed, the R R E P is piggybacked on a new request for a route to the source. If an
interm ediate node is unable to forw ard a data packet to the next hop in its source route, it
unicasts a route error (R ER R ) packet back to the source inform ing it o f the broken link. T he
source rem oves the broken link from its route cache and all routes containing this hop are
truncated at the point o f the broken link. Any transit node that forw ards the R E R R w ill learn o f
the broken link and rem ove it from its route cache as well. The source can then attem pt to use
another route to the destination if one exists in the route cache, or it can initiate a new route
discovery.
T here is no m echanism in D SR by w hich a stale route can be expired, nor is D S R able to
choose the freshest route w hen m ultiple choices are available in the cache. If stale routes are
used, they m ay cause other caches to becom e polluted. The use o f prom iscuous listening
coupled w ith node m obility can result in stale routes polluting caches faster than they can be
deleted by route error packets. A detailed discussion o f D S R ’s stale route problem is presen ted
in [65].
3.2.2 Tem porally O rdered R outing A lgorithm (TO R A )
T O R A [66] is a distributed routing protocol based on a “link reversal” algorithm that finds
38
and m aintains routes via local relaxation o f link direction. It w as designed to discover routes
on dem and, provide m ultiple routes to a destination, establish routes quickly, and m inim ize
com m unication. L onger routes are considered m ore im portant than route optim ality to avoid
the overhead o f discovering new er routes.
W hen a node needs a route to a particular destination, it broadcasts a Q U ER Y pack et
containing the address o f the destination for w hich it requires a route. This packet propagates
through the netw ork until it reaches either the destination, or an interm ediate node having a
route to the destination. T he recipient o f the Q U ERY then broadcasts an U PD A TE p ack et
listing its height w ith respect to the destination. As this packet propagates the neighbor from
w hich the U PD A TE w as received. This has the effect o f creating a series o f directed links from
the original sender o f the QU ERY to the node that initially generated the UPDATE.
W hen a node discovers that a route to a destination is no longer valid, it adjusts its height
so that it is local m axim um w ith respect to its neighbors and transm its an U PD A TE packet. If
the node has no neighbors o f finite height w ith respect to this destination, then the node instead
attem pts to discover a new route as described above. W hen a node detects a netw ork partition,
it generates a C L E A R packet that resets routing state and rem oves invalid routes from the
netw ork. T O R A is layered on top o f IMEP, the Internet M A N E T E ncapsulation P rotocol,
w hich is required to provide reliable, in-order delivery o f all routing control m essages from a
node to each o f its neighbors, plus notification to the routing protocol w henever a link to one
o f its neighbors is created or broken. T he key design concept o f T O R A is the localization o f
control m essages to a very sm all set o f hosts n ear the occurrence o f a topological change. To
achieve this, hosts need to m aintain routing inform ation about adjacent hosts.
39
TO R A ’s m etric com prises five elem ents: (1) logical tim e o f link failure (2) the unique id o f
the node that defined the new reference level (3) a reflection indicator bit (4) a propagation
ordering p aram eter and (5) the unique id o f the node. T he first three elem ents collectively
present the reference level. A new reference level is defined each tim e a node loses its last
d ow nstream link due to a like failure. Tim ing is an im portant factor for T O R A because the
h eight m etric is dependent on the logical tim e o f a link failure, and TO R A assum es all links
have synchronized clocks, accom plished via an external source such as the G lobal P ositioning
System . F or link status sensing and m aintaining a list o f a no d e’s neighbors, each IM E P node
p eriodically transm its a B E A C O N packet, w hich is answ ered by each node hearing it w ith a
H E L L O packet.
3.2.3 A ssociativity-B ased R outing (ABR)
T he A ssociativity-B ased R outing (A B R ) [67] protocol introduced a new m etric know n as
degree o f association stability. In A B R , a route is selected based on the degree o f association
stability o f m obile hosts. Each node periodically sends a beacon to signify its existence. W hen
received by neighboring nodes these beacons cause their associativity tables to be updated. F or
each beacon received, the associativity tick o f the current node w ith respect to the beaconing
node is increm ented. A ssociation stability is defined by connection stability o f one node w ith
resp ect to another node over tim e and space. A high degree o f association stability m ay
indicate a low state o f node m obility, w hile a low degree m ay indicate a high state o f node
m obility. A fundam ental objective o f A B R is to derive longer-lived routes for ad hoc m obile
netw orks.
A B R includes three phases (1) route discovery (2) route reconstruction (R R C ), an d (3)
40
route deletion. A node accom plishes a route discovery by a broadcast query (B Q m essag e) and
aw ait-reply cycle (BQ-REPLY). A ll nodes receiving the query append their addresses and their
associativity ticks w ith their neighbors. A successor node erases its upstream node neighbors
associativity ticks entries and retains only the entry concerned w ith itself and its upstream node.
In this way, each resultant packet arriving at the destination will contain the associativity ticks
o f the nodes along the route to the destination. T he destination then selects the best route based
on the associativity ticks along each o f the paths. W hen m ultiple paths have the sam e overall
degree o f association stability, the route w ith the m inim um num ber o f hops is selected. T he
destination then sends a R EPLY packet back to the source along this path. N odes propag atin g
the REPLY m ark their routes as valid. A ll other routes rem ain inactive, and possib ility o f
duplicate packets arriving at the destination is avoided.
T he route reconstruction phase m ay consist o f partial route discovery, invalid route erasure,
valid route updates, and new route discovery, depending on w hich node(s) along the route
m ove. M ovem ent by the source results in a new BQ -R EPLY process. T he route notification
m essage is used to erase the route entries associated with the dow nstream nodes. W hen the
destination m oves, the im m ediate upstream node erases its route and determ ines if the no d e is
still reachable by localized query process. If the destination receives the localized query packet,
it REPLY s w ith the best partial route; otherw ise the initiating node tim es out and the process
backtracks to the next upstream node. A route notification m essage is sent to the n ex t upstream
node to erase the invalid route and inform this node that it should invoke the localized query
process.
W hen a discovered route is no longer desired, the source node initiates a route delete (R D )
41
b ro adcast so that all nodes along the route update their routing tables. T he R D m essage is
p ro pagated by a full broadcast as opposed to a direct broadcast, because the source node m ay
n o t be aw are o f any route node changes that occurred during RRCs.
The follow ing table show s a contrast betw een O n-dem and source initiated protocol and a
T able-driven protocol. It is clear from the function o f Table driven protocol that it is a
p ro-active protocol, w here as on-dem and source initiated protocol is basically a reactive
protocol.
Table 3.1: C om parisons o f O n-D em and versus Table-driven R outing P rotocols

P aram eters O n-dem and R outing P rotocol T able-driven R o uting
Protocol
R o uting Inform ation A vailable w hen needed A lw ays available regardless
o f need
P eriodic update o f tables No Yes
M obility U ses localized route A lw ays inform s other nodes
discovery to m aintain co n sisten t routing
table
Signaling traffic generated G row s w ith increasing G reater than on-dem and
m obility routing
Q oS (Q uality o f Service) Few can support QoS S hortest P ath as a m ajo r QoS
m etric
3.3 A d-hoc O n-D em and D istance Vector R outing (A O D V )
The A d-hoc O n-D em and D istance Vector R outing protocol (A O D V ) [68] is w idely know n
as a pure on-dem and route acquisition system . A O D V is essentially a com bination o f both
D SR and DSDV. It borrow s the basic on-dem and m echanism o f route discovery and route
m aintenance from D SR , plus the use o f hop-by-hop routing, sequence num bers, and periodic
beacons from DSDV. N odes that do not lie on active paths neither m aintain any ro u tin g
42
inform ation n o r participate in any periodic routing table exchanges. M oreover, a node dose not
have to discover and m aintain a route to another node until the tw o need to com m unicate,
unless the form er node is offering its services as an interm ediate forw arding station to m aintain
connectivity betw een tw o other nodes.
R oute discovery in A O D V follow s a route request/route reply query cycle. W hen a node
needs a route to a destination, it broadcasts a “R oute R equest” (R R EQ ). A ny node w ith a
cu rrent route to that destination (particularly the destination itself) can send a “R oute R ep ly ”
(R R EP) back to the source code. R oute inform ation is m aintained by each node in its route
table. Inform ation gathered through R R E Q and R R E P m essages is kept w ith o th er routing
inform ation in the route table. A O D V uses sequence num bers to elim inate stale routes and
k eep loop-free. R outes w ith old sequence num bers are aged out o f the system .
3.3.1 A O D V R outing Tables
Each m obile node m aintains a route table entry for each destination o f interest. E ach entry
contains the follow ing fields:
• D estination node address
• N ext hop address
• N um ber o f H ops to destination
• Sequence num ber for the destination
• A ctive neighbors for this route
• E xpiration tim e for the route table entry
• L ast H op C ount
A neighbor is considered active, if it originates or relays at least one packet fo r that
43
destination w ithin the m ost recent active tim eout period. A route entry is active, if it is in use
by any active neighbors. T he path from a source to a destination, w hich is follow ed by packets
along active route entries, is called an active path. T he active tim eout period is reset each tim e
a route entry is used to transm it data. T he route entry updates are based on higher destination
sequence num bers or less num ber o f hops to the destination. N ew entries are placed in the
route table upon the reception o f R R E Q s and R REPs. W hen a node receives R R E Q s or R R E Ps
and it dose no t already have a route entry for the source o f the m essage, it places an entry in
the table listing the indicated inform ation.
A ssociated w ith each destination is a sequence num ber. If a node receives routing
inform ation for a destination, and it already has a route table entry for that destination, it
updates the entry only if the destination sequence num ber associated w ith the new inform ation
is g reater than that already contained in the route table entry. T he use o f sequence num ber
guarantees that routing loops cannot from , even under extrem e conditions o f out-of-order
p acket delivery and high node m obility. A dditionally, each entry has a corresponding lifetim e
that indicates the length o f tim e the route entry will expire. B eyond this period, the routes are
invalidated if they are not updated or used. W hen a route entry expires, the H op C ount value is
co pied into the “L ast H op count” field, and the H op C ount is set to oo. T he D estination
Sequence N um ber field is also increm ented.
3.3.2 R oute D iscovery
This thesis will be focus on the unicast com m unication in the protocol, although A O D V
p rovides unicast, m ulticast and broadcast com m unication. R oute discovery w ith A O D V is
on-dem and and occurs w hen a node requires a route to a destination fo r w hich it dose not have
44
a recorded route. T he node initiates route discovery by broadcasting a R R E Q packet. The
m essage form at o f the R R E Q is as follow s;
<Flags, H op_C ount, B ro a d c a s tJ D , Source_A ddr, Source_Seq#, D est_addr, D est_S eq#>
T he only flag used for unicast is the “G ratuitous R R E P ” flag. T he source o f the R R E Q sets
this flag w hen a node generating a R R E P for this R R E Q should send a gratuitous R R E P to the
destination node. T he “H op_C ount” field is initialized to zero and increm ented each tim e the
R R E Q is forw arded. Each node in the netw ork is responsible for m aintaining tw o separate
counters: a sequence num ber and a broadcast ID. The sequence num ber ensures the freshness
o f routes to the node. The broadcast ID, together w ith the source n o d e ’s IP address, uniquely
identifies each R R E Q . T he sequence num ber is increm ented w hen the node acquired new
neighbor inform ation, and the broadcast ID is increm ented fo r each R R E Q the node initiates.
A node receiving a R R E Q first updates its route table to record the sequence nu m b er and
n ex t hop inform ation for the source node. This reverse route entry m ay later be used to relay a
R R E P b ack to the source. The node then checks this table to see w hether it has a route to the
requested destination. In order to respond to a R R E Q , a node m ust either be the destination
itself, or m ust have an unexpired route to the destination with a sequence num ber at least as
great as that indicated in the “D est_S eq#” field o f the RREQ . A node having such a route
generates a RREP. O therw ise, it rebroadcasts the packet to its neighbors. Fig.3.1 illustrates the
propagation o f the R R E Q throughout the netw ork. A node m ay receive the sam e R R E Q
m ultiple tim es. W hen a node receives a R R E Q , it records the source IP address and broadcast
ID o f the packet. If it later receives a R R E Q w ith the sam e inform ation, it does no t process the
packet bu t instead discards it.
45
S o u rce D e s tin a tio n

S o u rc e D e s tin a tio n
- ' ' u
i'
o - - J
- o
\\
V /-
A) Propagation of RREQs B) Propagation of RREPs
Figure 3.1 : A O D V R oute D iscovery Process
3.3.3 R everse P ath Setup
A s stated above, w hen the R R E Q travels from a source to various destinations, it
autom atically sets up the reverse path from all nodes b ack to the source node S as illustrated in
the F ig.3.2 [68]. To set up a reverse path a node records the address o f the neighbor from w hich
it received the first copy o f the RREQ.
.....
I s r
Reverse Path Formation
F igure 3.2. A O D V R everse Path Form ation
The freshness inform ation about the reverse route is indicated by the source sequence
46
num ber, and the destination sequence num ber specifies how fresh a route to the destination
m ust be before it can be accepted by the source. T he reverse path route entries are m aintained
fo r at least enough tim e for the R R E Q to traverse the netw ork and produce a reply b ack to the
sender.
3.3.4 F orw ard Path Setup
W hen a node satisfies the requirem ents that it is the destination o f the R R E Q o r it has a
cu rrent route to the destination, the node sends a R R E P back to the source node. T h e R R E P
m essage form at is as follows:
< Flags, H op_C ount, Source_A ddr, D est_A ddr, D est_Seq#, L ifetim e >
T he A cknow ledgm ent flag is set in cases w here the link over w hich the R R E P m essag e is
sent m ay be unreliable. It indicated that a R R E P-A C K m essage should be transm itted by the
receiving node to acknow ledge receipt o f the R R E P m essage. The D est_A ddr field is set to the
destination address specified in the R REQ , and “D est_S eq#” is set to the responding n o d e ’s
record o f the destination’s sequence num ber. T he “H op_C ount” field is set to the d istan ce o f
the responding node from the destination or zero if the destination itself sends the RREP. T he
responding node sends the R R E P to the next hop tow ards the source node. T he node receiving
the R R E P increm ents the “H op_C ount” field by one and then creates or updates its entry for
the destination node in its route table, thereby establishing the forw ard path to the destination.
It then sends the R R E P to its recorded next hop for the source node. T his continues until the
R R E P reaches the source node. Fig. show s the forw ard path form ation. N odes that are not
along the path determ ined by the R R E P will tim eout after a set tim e and will delete the reverse
pointers.
47
y\
Forward Path Formation
Figure 3.3. A O D V F orw ard P ath Form ation
A node receiving the R R E P propagates the first R R E P to the source node. If it receives
fu rther R R E Ps, it updates its routing inform ation and propagates it only if the R R E P contains
higher destination sequence num ber. The source node can begin data transm ission as soon as
the first R R E P is arrived.
3.3.5 R oute M aintenance
If the source node m oves during an active session, then a new route discovery process is
initiated to find the new route to the destination. If the link breakage occurs due to the
m o vem ent o f the destination or an interm ediate node, then a route error (R E R R ) m essage
conveys the sam e to the affected source nodes. U pon receiving notification o f a broken link,
source nodes can restart a route discovery process if they still require a route to the destination.
T his procedure is illustrated in Fig 3.4. As in figure, the original path from the source to the
destination is through nodes 1, 2 and 3. Suppose node 3 then m oves away, cau sin g a link
48
failure. N ode 2 notices this break in connectivity and sends R ER R m essage to node 1, node 1
m arks this route as invalid and then forw ards the R E R R to the source. If the source node still
needs a route to the destination, it m ay find a new route through node 4 as show n in figure (b).
3 >— —___
m ove
\
\
/
RERR
(1 )
RERR
(b)
(a)
Figure 3.4. A O D V R oute M aintenance
3.3.6 Local C onnectivity M anagem ent
In AODV, the local connectivity m anagem ent is accom plished m ainly through the regular
hello m essages betw een the neighboring nodes. To utilize H ello m essages, a node broadcasts to
its neighbors a H ello m essage if it has not transm itted anything w ithin the last “hello_interv al”
m sec. T his inform s its neighbors that the node is still w ithin their transm ission range. A H ello
m essage is a special unsolicited R R E P w hich contains a n o d e’s IP address and cu rren t
sequence num ber. T he H ello m essage is prevented from being rebroadcast outside the
neighborhood o f the node because it contains a T T L value o f 1. N eighbors that receive this
p acket update their local connectivity inform ation to include the node. T he failure to receive
any transm issions from a neighbor in the tim e defined by the periodic transm ission o f
49
“ allow ed_hello_loss” H ello m essage is an indication that the local connectivity has changed,
and the route inform ation for this neighbor should be updated.
CHAPTER 4
A N IM PR O V ED M U L TIA N TS-A O D V
R O U T IN G A L G O R IT H M
As stated in chapter 1, the N A N E T has a nature o f a dynam ic topology, w hich m akes the
conventional algorithm s discussed in chapter 3 not applicable to be realized. T he conventional
p ro active routing protocols that require know ing the topology o f the entire netw ork is not
suitable in such a highly dynam ic environm ent, since the topology update inform ation need s to
be propagated frequently throughout the netw ork. H ence, the pure proactive schem es are
likew ise not appropriate fo r the M A N E T environm ent, as they continuously use a large portion
o f the netw ork capacity to keep the routing inform ation current. O n the o ther hand, a
dem and-based, reactive route discovery procedure generates large volum e o f control traffic and
the actual data transm ission is delayed until the route is determ ined. B ecause o f this long delay
and excessive control traffic, pure reactive routing protocols m ay not be applicable to real-tim e
com m unication.
4.1 A nt-based R outing A lgorithm F or M A N ETs
T he m obile agents based paradigm provides a novel solution fo r such difficulties. T he
agents hop from node to node, collect inform ation from these nodes, interact w ith o ther agents
50
51
directly or indirectly, and gift these collected data sets to new ly visited nodes. T hey are
particularly attractive in dynam ic netw ork environm ent involving partially connected
co m puting elem ents. T hey can help to achieve tw o general goals: reduction o f netw ork traffic
and asynchronous interaction, because the num ber o f m essages in M A s based m odel is
bou nded by the num ber o f constituent agents in the netw ork.
T he idea o f using m obile agents for routing purposes in dynam ic ad-hoc netw orks has been
explored in M IT M edia L ab [69] a few years earlier. C hpudhury et al. [70] follow ed the sam e
direction by proposing a distributed m echanism for topology discovery in ad-hoc w ireless
netw orks using m obile agents. In their w ork they try to overcom e certain lim itations observed
in M IT ’s research. U nlike the N etA nt algorithm w hich is appropriate fo r the fixed netw ork, the
forw ard routing m echanism is adopted in both system s, instead o f the round trip routing, due to
th e intrinsically slow nature in the latter one. A nts in netw ork routing applications are sim ple
agents em bodying intelligence and m oving around in the netw ork from one node to another,
u pdating the routing table on the nodes with the know ledge w hich they have learnt in their
traversal so far, as show n in Fig. 4.1.
52
fi k V: a l k y: 5 )
123
X \
E 12 / 1234
X , )"
[j Ant History Stack Mobile Nodes
Ants based route discovery
F igure 4.1. A dem onstration o f ants based routing
R outing ants keep a history o f the nodes previously visited by them . U pon arriving at a
node, the ant uses the inform ation stored in the history m em ory to update the routing table at
th at node w ith the best routes w hich it has for the other nodes in the netw ork. T he size o f the
history w indow is an im portant param eter: the longer the history, the higher the overhead o f
m oving the agent, and also sm all size will give rise to the problem o f the efficiency on the
em ploy o f the ag en ts’ traversal. H ence the history size o f the ants needs to be carefully decided,
and it w as fully investigated in [69]. A ll the nodes in the netw ork rely on the ants fo r providing
them the routing inform ation, as they them selves do not run any program for finding the routes,
and they sim ply host agents and provide a place to store a database o f routing inform ation.
H ence in this approach, the route discovery is m anifested in the m ovem ent o f agents carrying
routing inform ation from one node to another rather than the propagation o f individual update
m essages. A s discussed in chapter2, an agent can be form ally described as:
A (i, Nx, Ny, Rx, g )
53
W here A is an agent w ith ID i m igrating from node to node N y, carrying the routing
inform ation R% o f Nx and using the navigation strategy g to m ove am ong adjacent nodes.
C onsidering the route discovery is totally rely on the agent m igration in this approach, the
navigation strategy adopted by the M A s based protocols substantially determ ine the efficiency
o f the algorithm . H ence it is very im portant that the agents navigate intelligently, otherw ise an
im prudent strategy can severely affect the perform ance o f the algorithm . T he significance o f
the navigation strategy w ill be dem onstrated based on the com parisons in section 4.3.
The population size is also an im portant param eter: the m ore routing agents, the h ig h er the
overhead. H ow ever, w ith m ore a larger population, there are m ore agents to look fo r routes,
and the gain from adding m ore agents can decline the history size. M oreover, m ore agents also
narrow s the spread betw een m axim um and m inim um connectivity, and having som e
often-redundant agents can help lend stability to the netw ork [69].
4.2 A n A N T-A O D V H ybrid R outing Protocol F or M A N ETs
A lthough deploying m obile agents has several advantages in the ad-hoc environm ent due
to their flexible, robust and autonom ous nature, and they can be used for efficient routing in a
n etw ork and discover the topology to provide high connectivity at the nodes. N evertheless, the
ant-based algorithm s in w ireless ad hoc netw orks have certain draw backs. In that the nodes
depend solely on the ant agents to provide them the routes to various destinations in the
netw ork. This m ay no t perform w ell w hen the netw ork topology is very dynam ic and the route
lifetim e is short. In pure ants based routing, the m obile nodes m ay have to w ait to start a
com m unication till the ants provide them w ith the routes. In som e situations it m ay also
happen that the nodes carrying the agents suddenly get disconnected w ith the rest o f the
54
netw ork. This m ay be due to their m ovem ent aw ay from all other nodes in the netw ork or they
m ight go into sleep m ode or sim ply turned off. In such situations, the am ount o f ants left for
routing are reduced in the netw ork w hich could lead to ineffective routing.
To overcom e these inherent draw backs o f ant routing, another very encouraging research
by M arw aha et al. [71] proposes a com bination o f A d-H oc O n-D em and D istance Vector
(A O D V ) w ith the distributed topology discovery m echanism using ant-like m obile agents. T he
results o f the research show that their schem e achieves reduced end-to-end delay com pared to
conventional ant-based and A O D V routing protocols. The hybrid technique enhances the node
connectivity and decreases the end-to-end delay and route discovery latency [71].
In conventional ant-based routing techniques, route establishm ent depends on the ants
v isiting the node and providing it w ith routes. If a node w ishes to send data packets to a
destination fo r w hich it does no have a fresh enough route, it will have to keep the data packets
in its send buffer until an ant arrives and provides it with a route to that destination.
A nt-A O D V utilizes ants w orking independently and providing routes to the nodes as show n in
F ig .4.2.T he nodes also have capability o f launching on-dem and route discovery to find routes
to destinations for w hich they do not have a fresh enough route entry. T he use o f ants w ith
A O D V increases the node connectivity, w hich in turn reduces the am ount o f route discoveries.
E ven if a node launches a R R E Q for a destination it does not have a fresh enough route, the
p robability o f its receiving replies quickly (as com pared to A O D V ) from nearby nodes is high,
in that the increased connectivity o f all the nodes resulting in reduced route discovery latency.
E specially, as ant agents update the routes continuously, a source node can sw itch from a
longer and stale route to a new er and shorter route provided by the ants. This leads to a
55
considerable decrease in the average end-to-end delay as com pared both A O D V and ant-based
routing [71].
8,5,3,1
RREP
RREP
8,5,3,1 I
8,5,3,1 Destination
Source /
2,4 2,4,6
Figure 4.2. A dem onstration o f A nt-A O D V routing protocol
4.3 An Im proved A N T-A O D V H ybrid R outing P rotocol F or M A N ET s
B ut unfortunately, the ant-based routing algorithm proposed by M arw aha did n o t exert the
advantage o f the m ultiple agents. They ignored the forte o f the inter-agents com m unication.
T he sim ulation results also present this shortcom ing in the protocol. A lthough the M A s
navigation strategy plays a key role on the efficiency, the proposed protocol ju s t sim ply
adopted the conventional random schem e in ants-based routing. C onsidering tw o separate
protocols running sim ultaneously, the entries in the routing table becom e critical resources in
th e situation o f updating the routing table. To prevent the conflicts, an altered structure of
routing table is used in this thesis. In next tw o subsections, an im proved A nt-A O D V routing
p rotocol w ill be explained in detail.
56
4.3.1 N avigation A lgorithm s
As stated above, in the ant agents based routing protocol, to establish routes for every p air
o f nodes in the netw ork entirely relies on the ag en ts’ m igrations am ong the nodes. H ence the
efficiency o f the routing protocol, in term s o f the route discovery, is characterized by the
navigation strategy o f the agents.
So far, there are tw o navigation strategies m ainly used by agents based routing protocols
fo r M A N ETs. T he first one is based on random selection, in w hich the next node is selected
random ly. This strategy is w idely used in the conventional approaches due to its sim plicity, and
w as explored in M IT M edia L ab earlier [69]. In [72], M atsuo proposed a little revised version
based on the random schem e. A n idea o f “no return rule” was adopted to speed the
convergence, since if the next hop selected is the sam e as the previous node from w hich the
agent leaves to the current node, this route w ould not be optim al. A s show n in F ig.4.3, this
technique is used to elim inate the detours in the dynam ic netw ork.
o th e r
Neighbor 1
/O
Don't S elect \
1 _ / '
I ') { S V ^ S elect either
P revious Current ^.... '
N od e N ode
O ther
Neighbor 2
Figure 4.3. No return rule
57
The second approach w as also proposed by M inar in [69], in w hich a type o f “oldest-n o d e”
agent adopts a strategy that it preferentially visits the adjacent node it last visited longest ago
(or never visited, or doesn't rem em ber visiting). The backtracking also can be avoided by
consulting the history inform ation carried by agents. A t the sam e tim e, “oldest-node” agents try
to ju m p onto the nodes they have never been on first. This gives rise to an inclination that all
agents attem pt to diffuse as w idely as possible, as soon as the m igration process starts. A s a
result o f this tendency, the agents can collect the topology inform ation and spread the
inform ation to all m obile nodes w idely and quickly, other than blocking in som e region and
m issing the chances to advertise the recent topology inform ation to others tim ely. T he greatest
advantage o f this strategy is to shorten the period o f convergence on the process o f route
discovery. M eanw hile, it also accom plishes the function o f “no return rule” . M inar also called
the agent using “oldest-node” strategy as “conscientious agent” in [73]. The experim ental
result on the com parison betw een these tw o types o f agents is the sam e as the intuition. T he
“conscientious agent” is m uch m ore efficient than the “random agent” . T he idea o f the second
strategy can be show n in Fig. 4.4 follow ed.
58
Select this path based on history stack

...2...5...497
...2 .5 . 49
[ I Ant History Stack ) Mobile Nodes
F igure 4.4. T he m igration strategy o f “conscientious agent”
E ven though the “conscientious agent” navigation strategy im proves the perform ance o f
the route discovery a lot over the random approach, it still can not achieve a good perform an ce
in som e scenarios, such as in the case that all the neighbors nodes, from w hich the agent will
select as the next hop, are already stored in the agent’s history m em ory. F ollow ing the strategy
o f “conscientious agent”, it has to reinitiate another random selection on the nodes pool. E ven
co nsidering the “no return ru le” applied here, the random ly selected node m ay no t b e the good
one at that m om ent. T he direction to im prove the navigation algorithm is derived from the
experim ental results in [73].
In [73], M inar also did a com parison betw een the “conscientious agent” and
“ superconscientious agent” . T he type o f “superconscientious agent” adopts the sam e
n avigation strategy as the “conscientious agent” , bu t it has the capability to co m m u n icate w ith
o th er agents to exchange the topology know ledge, and it uses its ow n first-hand kno w led g e and
59
learned data from its peers in deciding w hich nodes to m ove to. In a com m on sense, the second
m ethod is better than the previous one, since it uses the potential o f inter-agent com m unication
and after all, the m ore inform ation that is factored into a decision the better that decision
should be. B ut the result is surprising. It turns out that in sm all populations
“superconscientious agents” do perform the best, but only ju st barely, and w ith the populations
increase, the “superconscientious agents” perform w orse than the “conscientious agent” . T his
is because “superconscientious agents” tend to duplicate one an o th er’s exploratory efforts and
tend to cluster together, w hile “conscientious agents” rem ain evenly dispersed. A s a result, the
w hole system based on “superconscientious agents” is less efficient. This result dem onstrates
that in the agents based system , the w hole perform ance is dependent on the behavior o f the all
o f the agents. H ence a good navigation algorithm should m ake the agents spread in the
n etw ork evenly, and keeps the varieties o f the m ultiple agents. B ased on this idea, and inspired
by the potency o f “stigm ergy” (a m ethod o f indirect inter-agent com m unication), an im proved
navigation strategy is proposed in below.
A n agents m igration inform ation table (A M IT) stored on each node is used to record the
history o f the ag en ts’ traversal. W hen an agent decides w hich neighbor is the next hop to m ove
to, it w rites the ID o f the neighbor node into the table before it w ill ju m p to. A s soon as the
agent leaves, a tim er needs to w ork for that record, to indicate how old that entry is right now.
T his freshness inform ation is used by the later landing agents to select the next hop. A ll agents
w ill choose the neighbor node w ith the highest value on the tim e field (the oldest entry).T his
can guarantee that m ultiple agents from the sam e m obile node do not visit the sam e neighbor
n odes consecutively. In the situation o f topology changes, if a m obile node detects the new
60
em erging neighbors, it initiates associated records for those nodes and sets the tim e value “ co” ,
and if it detects som e neighbors are disconnected, it rem oves the records associated w ith those
nodes in the AM IT. W hen an agent finds several “ co” in the tim e field, it random ly selects one
as the n ext hop.
The advantage o f introducing such a table on nodes is that w ith the indication o f the
m igration freshness on the selected neighbor nodes, the agents w hich are choosing the next
destination can get the inform ation o f other ag en ts’ choices, and disperse them selves to other
places to avoid clustering together, and this can im prove the w hole sy stem ’s perform ance.
A n other very im portant benefit is that this algorithm m akes the agents land on the nodes w ith
topology changes in a high priority. A s discussed in previous chapters, the m ost challenging
characteristic o f M A N ETs to design an efficient routing protocol is their highly topology
changes at all tim e. M ore prom pt response on the topology changes, m ore efficient a routing
protocol will be. A ll proactive protocols attem pt to react all changes timely, even before the
real d ata’s transm ission, but the overhead brought by this idea is so huge that they m ay n o t be
appropriate for such an environm ent. In contrast, the reactive protocols m ay take a long delay
to establish the connection. N evertheless, the adoption o f freshness’ indication m akes the
agents react the topology changes as soon as possible. Since w hen a new neighbor node B
em erges to a node A, it will appear on the A M IT w ith the largest value oo on A , the agents
landing on node A w ill choose the recent em erging neighbor B first, after it m igrate to B from
A, all the routing inform ation in node A’s region will be brought to new connected B ’s region.
T he sam e as in the opposite direction, the agent from B arriving on node A can introduce the
current routing inform ation about B ’s region to A. The prom pt exchange o f routing inform ation
61
could be very essential for a data packet being delivered to som e node in A’s region through
node A. W ithout the quick response like this, the opportunity for the packet to be delivered to A
m ay be m issed due to the delay. This advantage can be observed by the sim u latio n ’s result
w hich w ill be discussed in next chapter.
T he new proposed navigation algorithm can be described in pseudo code as follow s:
V ariables carried by a routing agent j are:
(1) NHTj— N avigation H istory Table stored in a structure o f stack like
{ N odelD 0, N odelD 1, ...} , initialization NHTi := { S tartN odelD };
(2) NEXTj— the node ID o f n ext hop w hich will be selected and visited
V ariables stored in a m obile node i:
(1) AM ITi— A gents M igration Inform ation Table in a structure o f vector, each elem ent
in the vector is like
{ N odelD , LivedTim e}, initialization AMITi := 0
(2) NT,— N eighbors Table in a structure o f vector like
{ N odelD 0, N odelD 1, ...} , values are returned from the low level protocol
P rogram for the agent i w hile visiting node i:
agent variables NHTj, NEXTj,

node variables AMITi, Vj, oldest, nextj
U pon arriving at a node i;

U pdate the routing table stored on the node;
/^S elect the next hop to m ove to*/

Initialization
Vi:= 0;
/*the F irst part */
62
F or each neighbor n E AMFTi do

If (n ë NHTj) then
Vi:= Vi U n;
E n d if
D one
If Vi: # 0 then
N E X T j<— a random elem ent in Vi;
E lse
/*the Second part */
F or each neighbor n E AMITi do
oldest := 0;
If A M ITi(n).LivedT im e > oldest then
oldest := A M IT i(n).L ivedT im e;
NEXTj:= n;
Vi:= 0 ;
E lse if A M ITi(n).LivedTim e = oldest then
Vi:= Vi U n;
E n d if
D one
E n d if
If Vi: X 0 then
N E X T j<— a random elem ent in X ;
E n d if
P ush NEXT j into NHTj
nextj := NEXT j
O nce an agent lands on a node, it updates the routing table stored on the node first. This
procedure is no t addressed here, and w e ’ll concentrate on the navigation algorithm . A fter the
agent finishes updating the routing table, it needs to calculate the next hop. First, it check s the
A M IT on the current node to see if there exist som e nodes it h asn ’t visited yet (those n o d e s’
ID s are no t stored in its N H T table) or it forgets (the n o d es’ IDs are throw n aw ay due to the
size o f the history m em ory). If m ultiple nodes are found, only one node is selected random ly
from them . T he unvisited node chosen if it exists is the next hop, and the agent records the
selection in the n o d e’s variable “nextj”, w hich will be fetched by the node soon. To p u t the
unvisited nodes on the first position to concern can guarantee all agents tend to traverse all
63
nodes in the netw ork. The first part in this algorithm is the sam e as the “conscientious agent”
[69] or “oldest-node” algorithm proposed by M inar [73].
The second part is the difference from M in ar's “conscientious agent” m igration algorithm ,
in w hich the agents ju s t random ly select a node from the all-visited neighbors. In this
algorithm , the second level selection continues. C onsidering after the protocol runs for som e
tim e, m o st agents already visit all nodes, the “conscientious agent” m igration algorithm is not
good any m ore to keep the perform ance o f the routing algorithm . A revised algorithm needs to
be applied here. The second part above in the algorithm can satisfy this requirem ent. It
proceeds to the second level, in w hich the agent retrieves the node w ith the oldest tim e field or
an em erging node w ith a tim e value o f “ oo” . The benefits brought by this part have been stated
above. O ne point needs to be addressed here is that the A M IT table is playing a role as the
pherom one, by w hich an agent can inform other agents its behavior at this m om ent. B u t in
co n trast to the conventional usage o f the pherom one, in w hich it is used to m ake m ore agents
attracted to follow the agent laying the pherom one, the A M IT table is used to disperse the
follow ing agents evenly in the netw ork (different intentions but the sam e m ethod— indirect
inter-agent com m unication).
B esides the ag en ts’ program , som e im portant jo b s need to be done by each node too:
P rogram for the m obile node i:
N ode variables AMITi, V,, oldest, nextj
U pon detecting a new neighbor n S NTj
AMITi := AMITi U n;
A M ITi(n).LivedT im e := oo;
64
U pon losing a neighbor n (ngN T i)
AMITi := A M IT i - n ;
U pon an ag en t’s leaving —>
AMITi := AMITi U nextj;
Set a tim er on A M ITi(next j ). L ivedTim e
B ecause each m obile node can read the current neighbors from its N eighbor Table (NT),
w hich is m aintained by a protocol in a low er level (discussed later), it is able to track the local
topology changes real-tim ely. If these local inform ation can be prom ptly advertised by agents
and used to update the routing tables, the aim to m ake the routing tables reflect the cu rren t
topology can be achieved. The A M IT table is also used to inform the agents the changes
happening in the local netw ork. A s soon as the m obile node learns the em erging neighbors, it
adds an entry in the A M IT and assigns a value o f “ oo” to the corresponding “L ivedT im e” field,
w hich m akes the com ing agent ju m p to the new neighbors first to respond the changes. W hen
n odes learn som e disconnected neighbors, they sim ply rem ove those neighbors from the A M IT
to be consistent w ith the N T table. O nce the agent departs, the node starts the tim er tracing the
elapsed tim e and updates on the “L ivedT im e” field o f each entry in the AM IT. Since the A M IT
table is stored on each node, accessed (read) by the agents, and m aintained (w ritten) by the
nodes, so it is a kind o f critical resource betw een agent (agents) and the m obile node. A m utex
m echanism needs to be applied here to protect the integrity and correction o f the data.
T he structure o f the A M IT can be referred in table 4.1. The sim ulation based com parisons
am ong the three strategies stated above are m ade, and w ill be explained in the n ext chapter.
65
Table 4.1 An exam ple o f A M IT table stored on nodes

N eighbor node LivedTim e
D 14
H 22
K 00
C 5
(The entry w ith the neighbor node “K ” will be selected.)
4.3.2 T he A nalysis O f T he Im proved A N T-A O D V R outing A lgorithm
T he navigation algorithm in agents based routing protocol provides the function o f the
route discovery process. B y replacing the “passing m essages” based m odel w ith the “ w alking
agents” based m odel, the routes are explored w ith the reduction o f the bandw idth w aste by
control m essages. B esides the route discovery part, a routing protocol for M A N E T s also
includes the local connectivity m anagem ent, the structure o f routing table and the route
m aintenance as in other conventional algorithm s.
4.3.2.1 T he Local C onnectivity M anagem ent In The Im proved A nt-A O D V
In the A nt-A O D V routing algorithm , the local connectivity m anagem ent is accom plished
by a m ethod o f periodic broadcasts o f “hello” (beacon) m essages, the sam e as in AODV. T he
“hello” m essages are frequent broadcasted one hop distance by each node to its neighbors only.
It can be seem ed as low er connectivity m aintenance protocol w orking beneath the routing
protocol. E ach node uses the inform ation from this low er protocol to update the N T table.
A n other attention is due to A O D V can only be applied in sym m etric netw orks, so the
A nt-A O D V algorithm has the sam e lim itation.
4.3.2.2 T he Structure O f R outing Table In The Im proved A nt-A O D V
An extended structure o f routing table over the ants based p ro to co ls’ routing tables is
exploited in Ant-AO DV. F or each destination node, m ultiple entries are associated w ith it
66
instead o f only one. O ther than the hops count is used to evaluate the distance o f the path to the
specified destination, a tim er attached to each entry is used to indicate the lifetim e the route has
been through, and to help decide w hether the route is valid and should be rem oved. M ore than
one route entry fo r each destination node brings m ultiple backups o f the routing inform ation
fo r each destination node. In the situation o f that the only explored route is invalid due to the
neighbor o f next hop m oves outside the range o f com m unication, the sending node has to
initiate an A O D V routing discovery procedure or w ait for the com ing agents to bring the
routing inform ation about the specific destination. B oth ways m ay take a long delay to
accom plish. T he m ethod o f adding backup routes can avoid the delay like this, since in that
case the node can find another available route even though it’s not as good (short or fresh) as
the previously used one. A nother goodness o f extending the routing table is the exclusion o f
the interference betw een the agents and A O D V w hile updating the routing table on the sam e
entry. A gents and A O D V can w ork on the different entries fo r the sam e destination
sim ultaneously w ithout conflicts. C ertainly the lim it on the m axim um num ber o f the entries for
one destination can be defined in different applications. In this thesis, w e define this lim it as
two.
B esides, another im portant extension is the field o f “active upstream no d e”, w hich presents
the upstream neighbor node in the data flow route w hen this route is being used. T his field has
the sam e function as the “A ctive N eighbors in the route” in AODV, and it is used and updated
in the sam e situation as in A O D V (discussed in detail in next section). A n exam ple o f the
routing table is show n in table 4.2.
67
Table 4.2 A n exam ple o f routing table w ith tw o entries for each destination
Destination Next Hop Next Hop
hops Time upstream flag hops Time upstream flag
B D F
5 10 A Y 7 15 C
P
12 6 O 9 4 K Y
4.3.2.3 T he R oute M aintenance In T he Im proved A nt-A O D V
A s in AODV, the route error m essages (R ER R ) are still used in Ant-AO DV, bu t they do not
only w ork fo r those routes built by the A O D V protocol. D ue to the introduction o f the “active
upstream no d e” field, the concept o f the “source initiated” request is also introduced in agents
based routing protocol, in w hich it has never been discussed before. Each node w hich intends
to send a packet can be deem ed as the “source” node as in AODV, D SR or other
source-initiated on-dem and protocols. A fter it sends the packet to one o f its neighbor follo w in g
th e routing table, the receiver node deem s the initiator as the “active upstream no d e” . B ecause
the “source address” and “destination address” are also included in the data packets, all
interm ediate nodes know w here the packets are from and w here they w ill go. H ence along the
path the packet follow s, each node on the path can record its predecessor respectively, and this
inform ation is stored in the “active upstream node” field in the routing table. In a sim ilar
fashion, each node is also able to record the dow nstream neighbor node: after sends the pack et
follow ing som e certain entry, flags this entry as an active dow nstream neighbor node, and reset
the “tim e to expire” to 0 (the m ost fresh indication).
A route entry is considered active if it is in use by any active neighbors, and the p ath from a
source to a destination, w hich is follow ed by packets along active route entries, is called an
68
active path [68]. T he recorded predecessor inform ation can be used to update the routing table
w hen broken links on the active path happen. In this case, the “U R E R R ” m essage is generated
by the neighbor nodes next to the broken link; the node, w hich lost its dow nstream neighbor
node, propagates the R E R R m essage to each o f its active upstream neighbors to inform them
o f the erasure o f that part o f the route. These nodes in return propagate this “link failure
n o tification” to their upstream neighbors, and so on until the source node is reached. O n the
o ther side, the node, w hich lost its upstream neighbor node, generates the “D R E R R ” and sends
it to all its dow nstream neighbors to inform them the erasure of the reverse route— from each
dow nstream nodes to all the n o d e ’s (w hich initiates the “D R E R R ” alert) upstream nodes along
the active route, until the destination node is reached. F or the nodes next to the broken link
them selves, w hile they spread the “U R E R R ” or “D R E R R ” , they also need to rem ove the all
routes associated w ith that lost neighbor as the “next hop” in the routing table. T he process can
be described as in Fig.4.5.
DRERR
4 X -
Broken
F igure 4.5. A n exam ple o f “N otification o f L ink F ailures” propagation
The introduction o f “m essages passing” m odel for the delivery o f the “link failure
n o tification” is able to serve w ell in the m obile agents based m odel (traditionally, they are used
69
separately). Since the “m essages passing” m odel is not used in a “flood” (this m ethod is used
in AODV, D SR , etc. for route discovery), instead, the error m essage is only broadcasted along
a path, w hich can only cost 0 (n ) in tim e com plexity or m essage com plexity. N evertheless, the
speed o f responding to the failure o f the links is increased a lot, w hich in fact avoids the fu rth er
w asteful delivery, and inform s the source node (requests the packet transm ission) selects
another available route in its routing table. T he result o f this is that the standard o f “packet
delivery fraction” and “goodput” both get increased, “packet delivery fraction” is the ratio o f
nu m ber o f data packets sent to the num ber o f data packets received and “goodput” is total
nu m ber o f useful packets received at all destination nodes. In M arw aha’s sim ulation for
A nt-A O D V [71], the result o f “packet delivery fraction” for ant-based routing is very low
com pared w ith A O D V and Ant-AODV. A lthough A nt-A O D V already has a satisfactory value
on “packet delivery fraction” over ant-based routing, the com parison show s that the outcom e is
heavily relied on the efforts from AODV. W e are trying to m ake the ant-based routing in the
hybrid protocol exert a dom inant influence on the w hole perform ance, and to explo it the
A O D V p a rt as a backup m ethod to explore the route w hich is required in a rush but no agents
h appen to w ork for it (preparing for the applications in the QoS environm ent). A fully exertion
to m obile agents can prom ote the hybrid protocol— A nt-A O D V to w ork as a proactive
algorithm w ith m uch less overhead on control m essages at the sam e tim e. This is another m ain
aim of this thesis.
Thus, m obile agents based routing protocols have the features betw een the proactive
protocols and reactive protocols. T he adoption o f m obile agents as the m essengers w alking
around in the netw ork, instead o f the enorm ous control m essages, can substantially reduce the
70
am ount o f non-data p ack ets’ occupation on the lim ited transm ission capability o f the M A N ETs.
W hile achieving the efficient usage o f the netw ork bandw idth, they also overcom e the inherent
delay shortcom ing in the reactive protocols, by reacting the topology changes im m ediately, and
even as qu ick as the proactive ones (the routing entries have been ready for the specific d a ta ’s
delivery).
CHAPTERS
T H E SIM U LA TIO N B A SE D CO M PA RISO N S F O R T H E
NAVIGATION STRATEGIES
The m ain aim o f this research is to design and im plem ent a novel navigation strategy fo r
m obile agents based routing protocol in w ireless ad-hoc netw orks that w ill provide the
follow ing benefits. M axim ize netw ork perform ance, scalability, provide end-to-end reliable
com m unications and reduce possible delays. Thus a sim ulator based on object oriented w as
developed fo r the com parisons am ong the three navigations stated in last chapter. T he
sim ulator is com posed o f five parts, including an event scheduler, a netw ork generator,
m ultiple m obile agents, routing im plem entation, and a visual interface.
5.1 T he Introduction O f T he Sim ulator
Som e param eters can be provided to the sim ulator, such as the num ber o f m obile nodes, the
n um ber o f agents, the m oving speed o f the m obile nodes, the range o f the com m unication, the
size o f the sim ulated area and the navigation strategy em ployed to com pare with. A ll the other
factors are generated from several random num ber series, w hich can be kept as the sam e input
for the com parison o f different algorithm s. T hose factors can be the initial positions o f the
m obile nodes, the direction and the speed o f each m obile n o d e’s m ovem ent, and the hom e
71
72
n odes o f the m obile agents w here the m obile agents reside initially. F or the reason o f fairness,
w e provide all com pared algorithm s under the sam e environm ent. T he event scheduler in this
sim ulator com pels each agent w ork in a tim e-tick m ode synchronously. In each step, the agents
do their jo b s independently. T hey m aintain their ow n history tables, update the routing tables
on the m obile nodes, select the next hops from A M IT and ju m p to them carrying the history
tables. Two m obile nodes are defined as source node and destination node respectively. W hen
the sim ulator starts, all m obile agents start w alking around follow ing the specified navigation
strategy for routes discovery and routing updates. A s soon as the source node learns the routing
inform ation for the destination node, it sends out the data packet im m ediately to the retrieved
neighbor from the routing table updated by the m obile agents. The neighbor node received the
data packet will take charge o f the delivery o f the data packet in turn, and propagate it pro v id ed
the routes inform ation for the packet are ready. W hen the destination node receives the
m essage, this run o f the sim ulation term inates. A nd then the results interested can be outputted.
The interface o f the sim ulator looks like fig. 5.1
73
Figure 5.1. T he snapshot o f the sim ulation
(In the snapshot, the w hite rectangles present the m obile nodes; the gray circles centered
w ith the m obile nodes (w hite rectangles) are used to dem onstrate the com m unication range o f
the m obile nodes; the green spots in the w hite rectangles depict the m obile agents m oving
around am ong the m obile nodes; and the red spot is describing the delivery o f the data packet.)
5.2 T he C om parisons A m ong T he T hree N avigation A lgorithm s
T he com parisons sim ulated in this thesis are provided an environm ent w ith the param eters,
w hich include (1) a closed area w ith 500x800 square m eters; (2) 60 m obile nodes; (3) the
range o f the com m unication is 90 m eters; (4) the speed o f the m obile nodes is from 0 to 3
m eters/tim e-step exclusively; (5) the size o f the history m em ory each m obile agent holds is 15;
(6) the discrete tim e-step is 50 m illiseconds/tim e-tick; (7) the frequency o f m obile agents
m o vem ent Ihop/tim e-step.
74
To evaluate the perform ance o f the three navigation strategies, w e take three associated
gauges into account. T he speed o f the convergence on the routing inform ation, is used to
evaluate how fast the navigation strategy can explore the routes and spread them in the
netw ork; the num ber o f total tim e steps w hen the run term inates, is considered as the w hole
efficiency o f the navigation strategy; and the num ber o f hops spent on delivering the data
packet, is evaluated as the as the routing efficiency affected by the navigation algorithm s. T he
sim ulated results are listed in the follow ing tables tab leS .l, table5.2, and the com parisons
am ong the three strategies are show n in the fig. 5.2, fig.5.3, fig.5.4.
C o n v e rg e n c e S te p s C o m p a ris o n
300
250
200-
S teps O Random Agent

■ Sm artAgent
150 □ Sm arterA gent
100-
10 20 30 40 50 60
Number of Agents
Figure 5.2. The comparison of the convergence speed
The “R andom A gent” em ploys the random m igration strategy; the “ S m artA gent” adopts the
sam e strategy as the M in ar’s “conscientious agent” m igration algorithm in [69], and the
75
“ S m arterA gent” uses the navigation algorithm proposed in this thesis. T he data are sam pled in
six groups, each one w ith different num bers o f agents from 10 to 60.
Form the results in Fig.5.2, it is clear that “S m artA gent” is m uch faster than the
“R andom A gent”, since it em ploys the “oldest-node-first” and “no-retum rule” in its m igration
strategy. It also obvious that “Sm arterA gent” has a equivalent perform ance w ith the
“ S m artA gent” on the speed o f the convergence, and even in the case o f few agents (10 to 30),
it outperform s a little over the “S m artA gent” . T hat is because it first inherits the “ S m artA g en t”
strategy to dispatch all agents widely, and base on this em ploys the agents m ore efficient than
it through the indirect inter-agent com m unications (stigm ergy). H ow ever, w ith the increase o f
th e num ber o f the m obile agents, the advantage goes down.
T o ta l S te p s C o m p a r is o n
Steps □ RandomAgent
SmartAgent
□ Sm arterA gent
30 40
Number of Agents
F igure 5.3. T he com parison o f the total steps taken to deliver the data packet
76
H o p s o f D e liv e ry C o m p a r is o n
Stops 15
□ Sm artAgent
B Sm arterA gent
30 40
Number of Agents
F igure 5.4. T he com parison o f the actual hops taken to deliver the data packet
B ecause all sim ulations m ade to com pare adopt the sam e routing algorithm , the only facto r
affecting the w hole routing efficiency is the navigation strategy. T he result is very po sitiv e fo r
the “Sm arter A gent”, no m atter the total steps or the actual hops taken to deliver the data
packet. T hese results show that the “Sm arterA gent” is m uch m ore efficient than the
“ S m artA gent” (37% better). W ith the application o f the “Sm arterA gent” in the hybrid routin g
algorithm , the w hole perform ance can be im proved a lot. Especially fo r the situations w ith few
agents, the better perform ance is m ore apparent, w hich in return can save m ore M A N E T s’
scarce resource to achieve a better w hole perform ance.
The results o f the com parison can satisfy our expectation on im proving the p erform ance o f
the hybrid A nt-A O D V routing algorithm through im proving the perform ance o f the ants based
routing algorithm w hich is not fully exploited in M arw ah a’s original A nt-A O D V [71].
77
Table 5.1. Sam ple data for the com parisons (10-30) m obile agents
Agent Number 10 Agent Number 20 Agent Number 30
Random Smart Smarter Random Smart Smarter Random Smart Smarter
o 315 315 50 333 317 57 321 329 43
I
(3
309 54 42 321 45 42 345 41 318
(D 347 324 43 311 43 55 318 40 52
3
s 356 54 321 321 49 42 338 60 54
335 45 321 365 44 44 322 45 316
348 41 49 317 55 43 320 321 49
363 50 47 330 323 45 359 319 44
315 328 55 318 44 49 345 53 39
353 51 316 327 47 52 328 319 53
332 315 319 317 41 317 318 45 43
355 321 42 340 42 52 340 60 42
384 59 316
342.667 163.083 160.08 327.273 95.4545 72.55 332.182 148.36 95.727
a
Si.
326 577 531 354 321 317 324 332 70
316 327 51 327 486 53 368 52 322
cn
390 572 68 339 552 568 332 496 604
(/)
412 886 358 338 544 51 350 575 635
380 51 351 368 68 54 331 59 320
351 84 60 321 326 337 323 326 73
365 331 57 333 54 71 367 347 54
326 601 613 325 56 55 352 326 48
745 319 320 356 50 59 331 55 59
336 325 330 331 602 51 355 55 53
385 608 53 368 50 520 353 478 53
523 319 320
404.583 416.667 259.33 341.818 282.636 194.2 344.182 281.91 208.27
O 4 37 3 3 21
(D 11 21 15 21
i' 7 3 9 6 22 15 21 11 4
% 42 8 21 26 85 13 14 23 9
o
X» 51 41 11 17 67 16 12 21 4
05
45 10 24 3 14 10 9 14 23
3 13 39 4 38 18 3 3 10
2 3 10 3 3 47 8 4 23
11 35 10 6 10 3 7 30 15
33 4 45 29 9 11 37 86 11
4 3 4 14 9 9 13 20 4
30 36 5 28 10 10 3 10 12
139 4 11
31.5 15.0833 17 14.2727 24.6364 17.18 11.8182 20.455 12.364
78
Table 5.2. Sample data for the comparisons (40-60) mobile agents
Agent Number 40 Agent Number 50 Agent Number 60
Random Smart Smarter Random Smart Smarter Random Smart Smarter
331 49 44 316 42 42 314 51 41
344 40 44 325 48 40 324 41 50
325 41 41 343 39 40 326 42 43
312 39 318 314 50 41 311 39 39
333 40 39 322 45 44 340 43 47
o
D
< 327 57 39 348 40 44 330 39 38
(D
(S 333 38 54 314 49 40 328 44 39
CD
3
n
319 40 40 315 42 41 929 41 37
CD
340 315 44 336 44 55 316 40 41
318 39 48 329 40 52 318 42 37
354 47 55 319 39 55 314 40 39
320 39 40 319 48 41
329.67 65.333 67.17 325 43.833 44.583 322.727 42 41
341 538 69 354 54 51 324 66 52

352 59 53 345 73 60 346 327 573
348 773 57 370 48 59 356 57 54
334 76 337 317 680 56 319 54 49
345 566 48 347 54 319 343 51 59
I
œ
348
336
581
54
52
322
368
327
51
76
74
57
350
355
49
47
49
66
(D
T3 322 52 557 317 53 53 332 408 334
CO
350 319 52 339 55 577 370 58 52
327 50 54 339 337 75 321 490 50
368 48 483 333 410 55 355 66 57
348 53 326 49 50 67 57
343.25 283.27 178.1 340.17 161.67 123.83 342.818 145 121
34 25 12 9 17 11
18 9 25 15 43 22
80 15 9 15 10 11
o 17 3 40 15 13 10
&
< 34 9 9 4 10 11
20 13 12 23 23 9
I
16 4 22 17 12 18
■8
CO
12 75 46 12 9 11
4 12 42 4 27 11
11 10 11 50 24 9
89 26 11 23 23 12
79
9 19 9 11 12 12
28.667 18.33 20.667 16.5 18.583 12.25
C H A PT E R 6
C O N C L U SIO N
A n ad hoc m obile netw ork is a collection o f nodes, each o f w hich is capable o f m oving,
resulting in continual changes in the topology o f the netw ork. T hese nodes com m unicate
through w ireless transm ission, and each o f them serves as a router for the other netw ork nodes.
A d hoc netw orks have m any unique characteristics that m ake netw ork com m unication
challenging. A m ong all difficulties, it has been w idely recognized that routing strategy is the
m ost im portant research problem . [1]
6.1 T he T hesis Sum m ery
A lthough the routing problem for the M A N E T has existed fo r decades and m iscellaneous
algorithm s have been proposed for it, those algorithm s’ inherent shortcom ings are still the
obstacles to prevent them from realistic applications. W ith the popularity o f the m obile agents
m odule em ployed as a pow erful tool in the distributed com puting, the ants based routing
algorithm s provide a m ore prom ising paradigm for M A N E T s’ routing problem s. H ow ever,
both pure ants based algorithm s and the hybrid algorithm (A nt-A O D V ) do not em ploy the an ts’
nature m erits fully to m ake routing efficiently.
T hrough the thorough analysis on [73], w e conclude that the m igration strategy adopted by
80
81
th e ants based routing algorithm plays a significant role on affecting the w hole p ro to co l’s
efficiency. W ith the application o f a new introduced table (A M IT), an innovative navigation
strategy exploiting the collaborations am ong agents is proposed in this thesis. T he sim ulation
based com parisons betw een the new strategy and the other traditional tw o strategies show that
th e new proposed navigation strategy substantially im proves the efficiency (37% ) o f the ants
b ased routing protocol, w hile keeping the m erit o f fast convergence from the good traditional
strategy. T he sim ulated results also indicate the application o f the new navigation strategy is
able to im prove the perform ance o f the A nt-A O D V protocol, w hich is considered as a m ore
realistic routing protocol for M A N ETs in this thesis.
B ased on A nt-A O D V protocol, several im portant revisions are m ade to gain better
perform ance. T hrough the structure extension o f the routing table used in A nt-A O D V , less end
to end delay and m ore reliable routing can be achieved. M ultiple entries in the routing table not
only introduce the backup routes in the protocol, but also m ake the tw o constitu en t
sub-protocols w ork m ore efficiently. T he original introduction o f the “m essage p assin g ”
m odule into the pure agents based paradigm m akes the route m aintenance m ore efficiently. T he
result o f the “link failure notification” is the reduction o f the further useless propagation on the
no n -existed routes, w hich increases the “goodput” and saves the scarce resource.
6.2 T he F uture W orks
A d hoc m obile netw orking is currently one o f the m ost rapidly grow ing research areas.
A nts based routing protocols or A nt-A O D V like ant-hybrid protocols taking the advantages o f
th e ant colony overcom e som e draw backs o f the traditional routing algorithm s fo r M A N ETs
82
and inspire m ore researchers w orking on this paradigm . In the future w orks, w e plan to
continue strengthen the em ploym ent o f the ants (especially the inter-agent com m unications) in
the A nt-A O D V protocol, and com pare m ore criterions on the protocols based on the N S-2
sim ulator. To m aintain a loop-free route in the agents based paradigm is still an open problem
in this area. We w ill concentrate our research on this im portant characteristic in the traditional
routing protocols.
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VITA
G raduate C ollege
U niversity O f N evada, Las Vegas
Jun W ang
H om e A ddress:
1600 E. U niversity Ave, Apt. 225
Las Vegas, N V 89119
D egrees:
B achelor o f Science, C om puter Science, 1997
B eijing P olytechnic U niversity, B eijing, P.R. C hina
T hesis Title:
A n im proved M ultiA nts-A O D V routing protocol for A d Hoc W ireless N etw orks
T hesis E xam ination C om m ittee:

C om m ittee Chair, Dr. A joy K. D atta, Ph.D .
C om m ittee Chair, Dr. M aria G radinariu, Ph.D .
C om m ittee M em ber, Dr. K azem Tagha, Ph.D.
C om m ittee M em ber, Dr. W olfgang Bein, Ph.D .
C om m ittee M em ber, Dr. Z. Y. W ang, Ph.D.
92

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UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

An improved MultiAnts-Aodv routing protocol for ad hoc wireless

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds

A thesis subm itted in partial fulfillm ent

Master of Science Degree in Computer Science

ProQuest Information and Learning Company

The D issertation p repared by

/ IÀa / / v\a A /\A ^

D ean o f the G radu ate C ollege

Ixamination C om m ittee M em ber

E xam ination C cm m ittee M em ber

G raduate College F aculty R epresentative

An improved MultiAnts-AODV routing protocol for

Dr. A joy K. D atta, E xam ination C om m ittee C hair

th e agents is strengthened. W e also present an im proved navigation algorithm fo r m obile

several navigation algorithm s are also presented.

C H A P T E R 4 A N IM PR O V E D M U LTIA N TS-A O D V R O U TIN G A L G O R IT H M ...........50

C H A P T E R 5 IM PLEM EN TA TIO N ISSU E S A N D SIM U LA TIO N R E S U L T S ................. 71

F igure 1.1.1 Handofif betw een A ccess P o in ts .................................................................................2

Table 3.1. C om parisons o f G n-D em and versus Table-driven R outing P ro to c o ls 41

I w ould like to thank m y thesis advisors Dr. A joy K. D atta a n d D r. M a r ia G r a d in a r iu

I also w ould like to express m y deepest gratitude to m y w ife and m y parents.

1.1 The introduction o f M A NETs

infrastructureless w ireless netw orks.

Figure 1.1.1. Handoff between Access Points

Figure 1.1.2. An example of cellular Model

type o f w ireless netw orks.

3) Infrastructureless: In contrast to infrastructured netw orks, infrastructureless netw orks, also

netw orks w ith dynam ic topologies.

Fig. 1.1.3. A n exam ple o f an ad hoc netw ork

1.1.1 T he definition o f the M A N E T and its applications

the fly [1].

in frastructure o r the existing infrastructure is expensive or inconvenient to use. A d hoc

be generated fo r the new environm ent. Typical applications include [1]:

hoc m obile com m unication, law enforcem ent, etc.

am ong participants at a e.g. conference or classroom . A nother appropriate local level

(W LA N ), G PR S, and UM TS. The PAN is potentially a prom ising application field o f

M A N E T in the future pervasive com puting context.

1.1.2 T he H istory O f T he M ANETs

provided m echanism s fo r m anaging operation centrally as well as on a distributed basis. A s an

IE E E and A C M . F or instance, M obiH oc (The A C M Sym posium on M obile A d H oc

p roblem s fo r research and significant contributions.

1.1.3 T he Issues A nd C haracteristics O f An A d Hoc N etw ork

o f a central infrastructure. T he share the follow ing characteristics:

m ay function as both a host and a router.

the term inals.

via one or m ore interm ediate nodes.

R egardless o f the attractive applications, the features o f M A N E T introduce several

expected. T hese include:

based on reactive routing instead o f proactive. M ulticast routing is another challenge

com plex than the single hop com m unication.

2) Security and Reliability. In addition to the com m on vulnerabilities o f w ireless

neighbor relaying packets.

3) Q uality o f S ervice (QoS). P roviding different quality o f service levels in a constantly

changing environm ent will be a challenge. T he inherent stochastic feature of

com m unications quality in a M A N E T m akes it difficult to offer fixed guarantees on the

services offered to a device.

1.2 T he O verview o f R outing Problem s In T he M A N ETs