Improved Multi-Path AODV Protocols for Real-Time Video Transport over Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

With the rapid advances in wireless ad hoc networking and the dramatic growth in network-based video applications, there is an urgent need for content-rich video communications in ad hoc networks. However, it is a great challenge to support real-time video transport over such networks. Providing acceptable video stability in ad hoc networks is a demanding task for both the video encoder as well as the networking infrastructure. In this paper an improved multi-path AODV protocol is proposed for real-time video transport. Based on AOMDV, a good protocol that uses multi-path routes without introducing loop cycle and building link disjoint paths, link state information is introduced in the route_list. Paths are selected according to first the link stability of the path and then the hop count. What is more, a path warning mechanism is proposed to update the route_list in order to reduce the impact of node mobility on video transport. The performances of AODV, AOMDV and the proposed routing protocol are evaluated through simulations using NS2. The results show that the proposed routing protocol performance overcomes the performance of other two protocols over 802.11 MAC. There is a tremendous reduction in the average end-to-end delay. The proposed protocol is an appropriate multi-path routing for real-time video transport.