A Novel Dynamic Routing with Stable Linkage in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Dynamic topology and power-controlled lightweight mobile devices usually affect the performance of wireless ad hoc networks and have always been a major focus of research. Data transmission between a source-destination pair is governed by different types of routing protocols like proactive, reactive, hybrid, geographical, etc. Reactive routing techniques are highly preferred due to on-demand source-based routing with limited space requirements. To get a stable route, the routing process should consider the link availability between the communicating nodes. If any two nodes along the route become unreachable, the communication could be interrupted. This could cause the receiver to lose data and experience longer delays. In this paper, we suggest a way to improve the existing DSR protocol. The focus is on choosing a stable route with less control overhead. During the route request phase, every participating node calculates its link availability time (LAT) for each adjacent link based on the current position of the neighbor and receiving signal strength. Links with lesser LATs than a threshold are not considered for route setup hence the flooding of control packets is reduced. Simulation has been performed over the basic DSR and proposed improvements over DSR in terms of control overhead, successful data transmission rate, and the number of route errors generated in the network. The findings show that previous knowledge of link availability during the routing phase aids in the discovery of more stable routes with lower control overhead, thereby promoting reliable data delivery and improving the overall network performance.