A novel delay-oriented shortest path routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks

In wireless ad hoc mobile network, a host which desires to communicate with another host may need some intermediate nodes to relay data packets. To maximize the channel resource utilization and minimize the network transfer delay along the path, the shortest path with minimum hops approach is often adapted. However, by considering employing the medium access control (MAC) protocol, the minimum transfer delay from source to destination may be achieved by choosing a longer path but with less contention delay. We propose an efficient delay-oriented routing protocol for mobile ad hoc wireless networks. The expected access contention delay of the IEEE 802.11 protocol is analyzed to support the routing decision. Simulation results show that the derived path length in the proposed delay-oriented routing protocol is slightly higher than that of the conventional shortest path with minimum hops approach but it can significantly reduce both the average transfer delay and packet loss rate