Introducing a method for improving the performance of routing algorithms in unmanned aeronautical ad-hoc networks

Abstract

One of the most widely used applications of wireless networks is in unmanned aeronautical ad-hoc networks. In these networks, the flying nodes in the mission must send their information to the ground base. If a UAV is outside the coverage of the ground base, it loses its connection. The solution is to send the information to the neighboring nodes. These neighboring nodes redirect the information to the ground base. Due to high node dynamics and rapid changes in network topology, one of the biggest concerns in these networks is routing between nodes. Previous routing methods, although making improvement in the overall performance in these networks led to routing overhead and network delay. In the present study a new routing method is introduced. In this new method a routing algorithm is presented with a focus on improving the packet delivery ratio and throughput therefore reducing the end to end delay and network overhead. In the proposed method instead of using only one route between nodes, all discovered routes in the network are kept in the nodes routing table. Then the best route is used as the first proposed route between the source and destination nodes and after failing this route, the second route is utilized immediately. This decreases the broadcasting of route discovery packets through the network. According the simulation results, the proposed method has proved more efficient. There has been an increase in packet delivery ratio by 4% in average, in end to end delay approximately by 30% and in the throughput ratio of the network by 9% in comparison with other methods in different scenarios. © 2017 IEEE.