Fuzzy routing in ad hoc networks

Routing and related resource allocation issues present special challenges in ad hoc networks. Typically, every node in an ad hoc network serves as a router for other nodes, and paths from source to destination often require multiple hops. Compared to wired networks, wireless ad hoc networks have less bandwidth, longer paths, and less stable connectivity, all of which render routing protocols from wired networks less suitable for the wireless world. This paper presents a novel routing scheme for ad hoc networks that applies fuzzy logic to differentiated resource allocation, considering traffic importance and network state. Messages are routed over zero or more maximally disjoint paths to the destination: important packets may be forwarded redundantly over multiple disjoint paths for increased reliability, while less important traffic may be suppressed at the source. The performance of fuzzy routing is evaluated using simulation, and is compared to dynamic source routing (DSR) and split multipath routing (SMR) wireless routing protocols.