Artificial ants for efficient data forwarding in wireless mesh networks

Abstract

We present our initial work on the design and implementation of an efficient routing architecture for wireless mesh networks (WMNs). We have proposed two routing schemes namely AMIRA and AntMesh, which provide efficient data forwarding for improved load-balancing and reduced interference in single and multi-radio infrastructure mesh networks. Both of our proposed schemes are derived from the principle of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) in which artificial ants (agents) perform the routing and data forwarding to stochastically solve a dynamic network optimization problem. The main focus in our work is to take advantage of the particular characteristics of ACO framework and exploit them in designing routing schemes for WMNs keeping in view the unique characteristics and requirements of these infrastructure mesh networks.