Survey of Bio-Inspired Resource Allocation Algorithms and MAC Protocol Design Based on a Bio-Inspired Algorithm for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

A variety of recent studies have attempted to apply biologically inspired (bio-inspired) algorithms to distributed resource allocation problems because they promise to enable efficient decentralized communication. In this article, we discuss the key challenges of MANETs with respect to bandwidth utilization, fairness, scalability, QoS, energy efficiency, and mobility. We also provide an overview of the state of the art of bio-inspired algorithms for resource allocation and describe the key benefits of using bio-inspired resource allocation algorithms in order to solve the various challenges of MANETs. Using the underlying key features of such bio-inspired algorithms, we design and implement a framework for a bio-inspired MAC protocol suited to MANETs and evaluate its performance. A simulation verifies that the proposed MAC protocol outperforms the existing MAC protocols in terms of throughput, delay, fairness, overhead, and energy efficiency. Finally, we discuss open issues associated with application of bio-inspired algorithms to resource allocation in MANETs.