Enhancing the Performance of MANETs by Monitoring the Energy Consumption and Use of Mobile Relays

Nodes in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) are battery powered and hence have limited life time. Due to excessive utilization a node may die which can result in energy depletion problem and thereby affect overall network performance. Local rate of energy consumption based on application (e.g.: audio, video, word, etc) can be monitored. We can estimate the remaining battery life (residual energy in a node) based on the application (rate of consumption). Thus early detection and avoidance of energy depletion problem is possible based on monitoring of power (rate of energy consumption) and remaining battery life (residual energy in a node). To avoid energy depletion problem due to excessive energy consumption at a higher rate, we introduce the mobile relays. These mobile relays reduce the power consumption in the node by balancing the load. As and when the rate of energy consumption based on the application returns to efficient levels, the mobile relay is released so that it can be made available for other critical nodes. This technique can be applied to any protocol used in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (DSDV, DSR, AODV, etc). A history of the use of the Mobile Relay is maintained for further analysis of network performance.