QoS-aware routing for mobile ad hoc networks based on multiple metrics: Connectivity Index (CI) and delay

Mobile ad hoc networks are infrastructureless wireless networks; all nodes can quickly share information without using any fixed infrastructure like base station or access point. Thus, nodes are responsible for path selection and maintenance. Most routing protocols implemented on ad hoc networks allow each node to select the path based on hop count or delay which can lead to network congestion. Hence, performance of ad hoc networks can be improved by offering the QoS provisioning either source or hop-by-hop QoS routing. However, it is very difficult to offer QoS guarantee in ad hoc networks because of their characteristics like dynamic topologies and bandwidth-constrained. In this work, we propose an effective algorithm to compute the feasible path by using Connectivity Index (CI) and delay to provide hop-by-hop QoS routing in ad hoc networks. CI is routing metric which indicates connectivity of each node in ad hoc networks; large value of CI indicates more branch node which makes a node more robust to link failure. The performances of the proposed algorithm are investigated by simulation. The results illustrate an important improvement over the traditional ad hoc routing protocol.