Introduction to Ant-Based Routing Protocols in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

1
Introduction to Ant-Based Routing Protocols in
Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

• Ernst W Grundke
• Faculty of Computer ScienceDalhousie
  UniversityHalifax NS

2
The Ant Colony

• Franklin Fezeu
• Wei Guo
• Cong Feng Lin
• Donald Morrison
• Nick Pilon
• Satwant Sandhu
• Keith Slade
• Sesha Thota
• Nur Zincir-HeywoodErnst Grundke
• Allan Jost

3
5-Layer Model
Application
Transport
Network
Link
Physical
4
In a mobile ad-hoc network, ...

• there is no wired infrastructure no base
  stations
• communication is short-range wireless
• node power is scarce
• topology is dynamic

5

Ad-hoc network

• Network topology is dynamic

6

Ad-hoc network

• Network topology is dynamic

7

Ad-hoc network

• Network topology is dynamic

8
In a mobile ad-hoc network, ...

• there is no wired infrastructure
• communication is short-range wireless
• node power is scarce
• topology is dynamic nodes move, nodes join
  leave the network
• ...hosts routers
• How to do routing?

9
Goals of Routing

• High packet delivery ratio of packets
  reaching destination
• Low delay time
• Low bandwidth overhead

10

Wired Networks RIP
routing table
11
MANET Routing Protocols

• Reactive routing protocol
• Seek a route when needed
• High packet delivery ratio
• But relatively long delays
• Proactive routing protocol
• Seek routes before needed
• Lower packet delivery ratio
• Relatively short delays

12

Mobile Agent Routing (Ants)
13

Ants
14

Ants
15

Ants
16

Ants

• Ant history lists collect and disseminate routing
  data.

ants history list
nodes routing table
17

Ants Lots of Open Questions

• How many ants?
• What about kidnapped ants?
• Ant lifetimes?
• Ant history length?
• Should mobility affect ant birth rates?
• How best to incorporate ants in protocol stacks?
• Constraint No global data.

18
Completed Projects

• Yan Zhou Ant Protocol with Stygmergy
• Wenwei (Owen) Yue Ant Protocol Localization
• Donald Morrison Equilibration
• Nicholas Pilon Dynamic Graph Algorithms

19
Current Projects

• Franklin Fezeu Connectivity Visualization
• Wei Guo Stochastic Ants
• Cong Feng Lin Ant Density Control
• Satwant Sandhu Hybrid Routing
• Keith Slade Insect Metaphor
• Sesha Thota Random Walks Ant Tuning

20

Continuum Modelling

21


Continuum Modelling

• Nodes randomly distributed
• Routing data arrives randomly

22

Continuum Modelling

• Surprise! CM can predict
• scaling behaviour
• breakdown due to routing traffic
• effects of mobility on routing tables
• transient effects
• CM produces dimensionless parameters that
  characterize the network.

23
Comments?Questions?Ernst.Grundke_at_dal.ca
?