INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Int. J. Commun. Syst. 2014; 27:163170

Published online 16 April 2012 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/dac.2354

Stable routing algorithm for mobile ad hoc networks

using mobile agent
G. Varaprasad* ,
B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore 560 019, India

SUMMARY
Wireless ad hoc networks are growing important because of their mobility, versatility, and ability to work
with fewer infrastructures. The mobile ad hoc network is an autonomous system consisting of mobile nodes
connected with wireless links. Establishing a path between two nodes is a complex task in wireless networks.
It is still more complex in the wireless mobile ad hoc network because every node is no longer as an end
node and an intermediate node. In this paper, it focuses on design of connectionless routing protocol for
the wireless ad hoc networks based on the mobile agent concept. The proposed model tries to discover the
best path taking into consideration some concerns like bandwidth, reliability, and congestion of the link. The
proposed model has been simulated and tested under various wireless ad hoc network environments with
the help of a different number of nodes. The results demonstrate that the proposed model is more feasible
for providing reliable paths between the source and destination with the minimum control message packets
over the network. It has delivered more number of packets to the destination over the network. Copyright
2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 10 August 2011; Revised 26 January 2012; Accepted 10 March 2012
KEY WORDS:

MANET; support node; routing; packet delivery ratio; performance; mobile agent

1. INTRODUCTION
A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a wireless network that comes together when it needs. The
MANET is a collection of wireless hosts without relying on assistance from the existing infrastructures [1]. The mobile nodes are free to move randomly over the network. In recent years, the
MANET has been recognized as a major research work in wireless communication systems. The
typical applications of the MANET include emergency, communication, business conference, etc
[2]. Mobile devices, laptops and personal digital assistants are used in the MANET to support collaboration of participants and increase the efficiency. The organization of the MANET is shown
in Figure 1. Here, each host forwards data packets to the destination independently. Some of the
characteristics of wireless MANETs are as follows [3]:







Every host functions as a mobile node

The network is distributed
The channel quality will be varied
Limited bandwidth over the network
The topology changes over the time
Nodes will have limited battery-power

The main challenge of the MANET is to increase the efficiency of data transfer during harsh conditions such as power constraints and high mobility. The advances in the wireless communication
*Correspondence to: G. Varaprasad, CSE, BMSCE, Bangalore 560 019, India.
E-mail: varaprasad555555@yahoo.co.in
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G. VARAPRASAD

Figure 1. Mobile ad hoc network.

are required to overcome the limitations of broadcast radio networks. In addition to the routing protocols and transport protocols, it must function as an intelligent system while routing data packets
from one location to another.
The proposed model forwards data packets from the source to destination through the best path
(in terms of bandwidth, reliability, and packet delivery ratio). The rest of the paper is organized as
follows. Section 2 presents some of the existing models. The proposed model and its design steps
are discussed in Section 3. Section 4 presents the simulation environment and simulation setup.
Simulation results of the proposed model are discussed in Section 5. Finally, Section 6 presents the
conclusions of the proposed work
2. RELATED PROJECTS
This section presents some of the existing models on routing algorithm for MANETs. On-demand
routing protocols, dynamic source routing (DSR) and ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV)
are discussed in [4, 5]. The DSR model is less stressful, if the number of nodes is low, low load, and
low mobility, or both compared with the AODV model. At high load and high node mobility, the
AODV model performs better than that of the DSR model. However, the DSR model generates few
control message packets than that of the AODV model. However, several researchers feel that the
proactive routing protocols are not suitable for MANETs [5].
Calafate et al. [6] proposed an agent-based information dissemination model for MANETs.
Two-tier agent architecture is employed comprising of the following: (i) lightweight, networkfacing, mobile agents and (ii) heavyweight, application-facing, norm-aware agents. The limitations
of Vehicular ad hoc Networks (VANETs) lead us to consider a hybrid wireless network architecture
that includes wireless local area network, cellular, and ad hoc network for analyzing the network
model [7]. Biradar and Manvi [8] proposed an agent-based-adaptive-bandwidth-allocation scheme
that allocates bandwidth by using interference bandwidth allocation schemes to provide acceptable
QoS for end-users. Bandwidth is one of the most critical resources in wireless networks, which
should be managed efficiently. This scheme claims that an agent-based bandwidth allocation delay
is 24.5 ms compared with the non-agent-based approach (78 ms).
Biradar and Manvi [9] proposed an adaptive bandwidth allocation scheme for the multimedia
applications by deploying static and mobile agents. It is a run-time allocation scheme that functions
at network nodes. It adaptively finds the alternate paths for every congested/failed link. It reallocates
the bandwidth for the badly affected multimedia applications. The designed method is tested under
the various network sizes and conditions. The results are presented to assess performance and effectiveness of the approach. Manvi and Venkataram [10] presented outlines of an agent-based method,
which allows test-cases to be run on nodes. It determines their fitness to route the data packets.
These test cases are related to important routing parameters, data processing performance, memory
buffering capability, system utilization, network performance, etc. A key element is that the usage of
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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MOBILE AD HOC NETWORKS

battery on the mobile networks and the performance of the ad hoc network can be affected because
of lack of battery power [11, 12].
One of the most popular evolutionary algorithm models is genetic algorithm (GA). It mimics gene
organization in humans based on progress theory [13]. The evolutionary algorithm model addresses
some issues of the Web Usage Mining (WUM) model. It attempts dissimilar problems such as personalized search, Information Retrieval (IR), query optimization, and document representation. The
modified GA model used for website-based optimization designs on the basis of multiple optimization criteria by taking download time, visualization, and product association level [14]. Artificial
neural networks or simply neural networks (NN) models mimic the genetic process of the human
brain. An NN model can be guided to the group of users into specified groups/clusters. This is useful in personalization because each user group may possess similar preferences. The content of a
web interface can be adapted to each group [15]. Particle swarm optimization model has convergence behavior of a flock of birds [16]. It is used for examining web-based user behaviors. This was
accomplished using users profile and used to find similar-profile user [17]. Ant colony optimization
constructs the behavior of ants that leave the nest to wander randomly in search of food and when
food is found, the ants leave a trail of pheromone when returning to the colony [18].
2.1. Mobile agent
A mobile agent is a program that represents a user in the MANET. It is capable of migrating
autonomously from one node to another to perform some computations on behalf of the user. The
mobile agent is an effective choice for many applications for several grounds including improvements in delay and bandwidth. The periodical updates consume more amounts of bandwidth and
power in the MANET. The construction of MANET using mobile agents is shown in Figure 2.
Here, the mobile agents are used by the nodes to communicate with others. Some of the benefits of
the mobile agents are as follows:
 Bandwidth saving: moving the agent to the source can reduce consummation of the bandwidth.

Resulting data are transmitted to the clients. It reduces the data before transmission.
 Reduction of delay: the communication delay can be reduced because an agent carries a series






of service request packets across the MANET. There is no need to send the service request
packets separately.
Dynamic deployment: the mobile agent can be used for automation of software installations
and upgrades.
Reduction of completion time: reduction of the network connection time is also an important
factor to send an agent and receiving results back.
Asynchronous communications.
Load balance.

Figure 2. Mobile agent in the mobile ad hoc network.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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3. PROPOSED SYSTEM
The main objective of this paper is to discover the best path from the source to destination by taking
parameters like bandwidth, reliability, and congestion of the link. In this work, a modified version
of the DSR protocol is used to maximize the network throughput. The proposed model the mobile
agent concept.
3.1. System model
The proposed model provides multiple paths towards the destination node. The source node can
store the secondary best path or more paths in its cache. If there is congestion on the primary path,
then all future packets can be sent through new routes. This way the congestion can be handled
without much overhead.
Here, node reliability is measured by taking into consideration the previous forwarding behavior of the node. The congestion can be measured with the help of current load among the
neighbor nodes.
Let n1 n2 n3 n4 : : : ..nr be the neighbors of source Si . The Si sends data packets based on the
reliability, congestion and bandwidth metrics.
Rmax DMaxRi k
k 2 1, 2, 3 : : : ..r

(1)

Cmin D MinCi k
k 2 1, 2, 3 : : : ..r

(2)

Bmax D MaxBi k
k 2 1, 2, 3: : :..r

(3)

The routing information is updated by using route request (RREQ) packet. If the source wishes
to communicate with the destination for which it does not have a path, then it broadcasts the RREQ
packet over the network. The intermediate nodes will send a route reply (RR) packet to the source.
To forward the data, the modified RREQ packet uses Bmax , Cmin , and Rmax fields as shown in Table I.
The values of Bmax , Cmin , and Rmax are set to 1 as default. The intermediate nodes rebroadcast it
to the next node until it reaches the destination if it does not have a path. The intermediate nodes
receive it and the hop-count will be increased by 1. The values of Rmax and Bmax are replaced
if values are high. The value of Cmin should be minimized. The destination node receives all the
RREQ packets until the timer expires and sends the RR packet to the source. On the basis of the
Equations (1), (2), and (3), a route is established and then the data are transmitted from the source to
destination. Here, each node changes the transmission power levels based on its transmission range.
Table I. RREQ packet.
Type

Reserved

Hop-count

RREQ-ID
Originator IP
Originator sequence number
Destination IP
Destination sequence number
Rmax
Cmin
Bmax
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4. SIMULATION
Here, an area of 1000 m  1000 m is considered with a set of mobile nodes placed randomly. The
proposed model has been simulated using Network Simulator (NS-2.33, University of California,
Berkeley, CA, USA). Each node is initially placed at a random position within the defined area.
As it progresses, each node pauses its current location for a period of time (2 s) and then randomly
chooses a new location. Each node maintains this behavior, alternately pausing and moving to a new
location for the duration of 2000 s. The simulation parameters are shown in Table II. Here, it used a
modified DSR protocol and the performances of all five models are compared namely, AODV, DSR,
particle swarm model, ant colony optimization model, and the proposed model. The performances
of all five models were evaluated using random generated scenarios. In fact, we used constant bit
rate (CBR) traffic. To evaluate the network performance of all five models, we used NS-2.33. It
allows us to observe and measure the network performance under various conditions. In addition to
the number of parameter choices, the simulator allows us to vary certain environmental factors such
as mobility, number of nodes, and number of packets. The following metrics packet delivery ratio,
control message packets, and number of path reconstructions are used to measure the performance
of the system.
Packet delivery ratio: The number of data packets received at the destination divided by the
number of packets generated by the source.
Control message packets: The average number of control message packets needed to deliver a
packet from the source to destination.
Number of path reconstructions: The average number of paths is needed to deliver a packet from
the source to destination.
4.1. Packet delivery ratio
In this scenario, 100 nodes were considered spreading within the defined area and mobility varies
from 010 m/s. The simulation was executed for 20 runs with different mobilities in a given topology. Here, eight nodes transmit the data at a rate of 5 packets/s. The AODV model and DSR model
work well if mobility is low (2 m/s). As mobility increases (8 m/s), the AODV model, DSR model,
particle swarm model, ant colony optimization model, and the proposed model have transmitted
87%, 90%, 91%, 92%, and 92% of data packets, respectively, as shown in Figure 3. The experiment results have confirmed that the packet-delivery ratio will decrease if the nodes move at high
speed. The packet-delivery ratio will not change substantially as the number of nodes increases.
The packet-delivery ratio of the particle swarm model is not similar to the ant colony optimization
Table II. Simulation parameters.
Simulation time
Traffic type
CBR packet size
Routing protocol
Hello_packet_interval
Node mobility
Frequency
Channel capacity
Transmission range
Mobility
Route-request time-out
Route-request slot length
Maximum route-request period
Route-reply hold off per-node delay
Communication system
Bmax value
Cmin value
Rmax value
Packets distribution
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

2000 s
CBR
512 bytes
DSR, AODV, particle swarm, ant colony optimization
1s
0 to 30 m/s
2.4 GHz
2 Mb/s
150 m
Random waypoint model
500 ms
500 ms
10 s
4 ms
IEEE 802.11g
0!1
0!1
0!1
Random
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G. VARAPRASAD
Mobility versus Packet delivery ratio
1
AODV Model
DSR Model
Particle Swarm Model
Ant Colony Optimization Model
Proposed Model

Packet delivery ratio

0.98

0.96

0.94

0.92

0.9

0.88

0.86
0

10

Mobility(m/s)

Figure 3. Mobility versus packet delivery ratio.

model. At low node mobility and less number of nodes, the packet-delivery ratio of the proposed
model is more compared with the particle swarm and ant colony optimization models.
4.2. Control message packets
In this setup, it deployed 100 nodes within the defined area and node mobility varies from 010 m/s.
In fact, the simulation was executed 20 times with different mobilities in a given topology.
Mobility versus percentage of control message packets is shown in Figure 4. In the proposed
model, the route-discovery process needs more control message packets to propagate in the network,
because it has to compare all possible paths between the source and destination. Then it selects the
best path in terms of maximum bandwidth and reliability nodes and less-congested nodes. The DSR
model has generated few control message packets because of its caches. If the mobility is 8 m/s,
then the number of control message packets in the AODV model is 4.2, whereas the DSR model has
Mobility versus Control message packets

Control message packets

4.5

AODV Model
DSR Model
Particle Swarm Model
Ant Colony Optimization Model
Proposed Model

3.5

2.5
0

10

Mobility (m/s)

Figure 4. Mobility versus percentage of control message packets.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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MOBILE AD HOC NETWORKS

Mobility versus % of path reconstructions
14
AODV Model
DSR Model
Particle Swarm Model
Ant Colony Optimization Model
Proposed Model

% of path reconstructions

12

10

10

Mobility (m/s)

Figure 5. Mobility against path reconstructions.

3.6, and the particle swarm model, ant colony optimization model, and the proposed model have
2.6, 2.8, and 2.7, respectively. If the mobility increases, then the routes are valid only for a short
period of time. Hence, more number of control message packets are needed for route discoveries.
4.3. Number of path reconstructions
In the experimental setup, it deployed 100 mobile nodes within the defined area. The number of
data packets sent between 520 packets/s and each node moved constantly with 010 m/s. if the
number of nodes decreases, then the number of path reconstructions increases because of mobility.
The percentage of path reconstructions is consistently low in the proposed model compared with the
AODV and DSR models as shown in Figure 5. The proposed model performs well if the network
has adequate number of nodes in terms of reliability. In fact, it has reduced the number of path
reconstructions by 85% compared with the AODV model, 12% against the particle swarm model,
and 23% against ant colony optimization model at mobility 8 m/s. This is because the proposed
model has forwarded data through routes with stronger reliable nodes.
5. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a stable routing algorithm for MANETs was presented. The metrics like bandwidth,
reliability, and congestion of the path are used to route the data packets from the source to destination. In simulation, nearly 100 mobile nodes were used within an area of 1000 m  1000 m. Here,
it is likely to have the unpredictable links, nodes, and variable mobility patterns. It has also helped
us to switch new routes before failure occurs. The proposed model provides the quality of service
for end-users over the network. The simulation results proved that the proposed model shows the
best results in terms of packet delivery ratio, control message packets, and number of path reconstructions compared with the AODV model and DSR model. Here, it is assumed that the mobile
devices have bidirectional communication. The proposed system has not considered packet loss over
the network.

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AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY

G.Varaprasad received the B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from Sri
Venkateswara University, Tirupati, in 1999 and M.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering from B.M.S.College of Engineering, Bangalore, in 2001 and PhD in Computer Networks
from Anna University, Chennai in 2004 and worked as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore in 2005. Currently, he is working as an Assistant Professor at
B.M.S.College of Engineering, Bangalore. His areas of Interests are mobile ad hoc network
and simple network management protocol.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Commun. Syst. 2014; 27:163170

DOI: 10.1002/dac