Hybrid optimization-based Effective Path Selection and Multipath routing in MANETs

Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANETs) have emerged as a popular technology because of their wide application and independent mobility. Nevertheless, communication through MANETs can be effective because of their inherent nature of high mobility, which in turn results in a higher rate of data loss and delay. Therefore, for effective communication to be achieved, the MANETs’ routing performance must be enhanced. Some extant routing protocols like AOMDV can yield moderate Routing Overhead (RO) during communication. The review of previous studies shows that there is a need for improvement in the following areas: Computational E2E delay: the proposed Genetic Algorithm- Ant Colony Optimization (GA-ACO) was unable to reduce the computational E2E delay that occurs during communication. RO: The schemes that were proposed failed to minimize the RO in the network. Energy consumption: the reduction energy consumed by the network was reduced, however, high throughput and PDR could not be achieved by the method. On the contrary, the EHO-based AOMDV routing protocol achieved low E2E delay and RO but was unable to decrease the energy consumed by the network. Throughput and PDR: The protocol proposed failed to achieve high Quality of Services (QoS). Consequently, this paper aims to provide a solution to this communication problem by proposing a Hybrid Optimization-based Effective Path Selection and Multipath routing (HOEPSM) approach for MANETs. The proposed approach, which is HOEPSM is made up of two parts: Elephant Herding Optimization (EHO)-based AOMDV routing protocol, which makes use of EHO for the identification of the shortest path from the source to the destination. The second part which is the Hybrid optimization using Genetic Ant Optimization (GAO) algorithm, involves finding the best solution through the use of a GAO-based hybrid optimization algorithm. The results of the study revealed that the use of the HOEPSM causes a significant decrease in routing RO while enhancing the network’s Quality of Forwarding (QoF) of the network. Also, the simulation of the proposed approach was carried out in NS2, and afterward, compared with earlier proposed methods like DRARP and MDRARP. Based on the simulation results, the HOEPSM outperformed the other methods, with high Energy Efficiency (EE) (91%), Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) (95%), RO (155), and End to End (E2E delay) (102ms). These results can be attributed to the HOEPSM’s choice of the best and steady route from the source nodes and destination nodes.