Discrete multi-objective differential evolution algorithm for routing in wireless mesh network

The wireless mesh network (WMN) is a challenging technology that offers high quality services to the end users. With growing demand for real-time services in the wireless networks, quality-of-service-based routing offers vital challenges in WMNs. In this paper, a discrete multi-objective differential evolution (DMODE) approach for finding optimal route from a given source to a destination with multiple and competing objectives is proposed. The objective functions are maximization of packet delivery ratio and minimization of delay. For maintaining good diversity, the concepts of weight mapping crossover (WMX)-based recombination and dynamic crowding distances are implemented in the DMODE algorithm. The simulation is carried out in NS-2 and it is observed that DMODE substantially improves the packet delivery ratio and significantly minimizes the delay for various scenarios. The performance of DMODE, DEPT and NSGA-II is compared with respect to multi-objective performance measures namely as ‘spread’. The results demonstrate that DMODE generates true and well-distributed Pareto-optimal solutions for the multi-objective routing problem in a single run.