Rural Communication Development Using Mobile

Ad-hoc Network
Agent and Sensors
Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology, Panipat, Haryana
Staffordshire University, UK

2. MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORK STRUCTURE

ABSTRACT Figure 1.0 MOBILE AD-
HOC
Rural areas where resource of communication lacks
and the area like earthquake zone require a strong
communication channel. India is one of the fastest growing
countries in the world but fact is there are more than 600
villages still lack the proper communications. Mobile ad-hoc
network is one of the networks which often requires seamless
ubiquitous network, which can be utilized to structure the
wireless mode of communication, for the transmission of
strategic information among mobile agents in areas where no
rigid infrastructure can be set up for a network. Mobile ad-hoc
network is best suited for this kind of situation because of the NETWORK Structure (Q.Fang)
flexibility and scalability it offers. No central administration is In MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORK, nodes within each
required for such network, as it works on temporary others wireless transmission ranges can communicate
connection links, making the network ubiquitous. The prime directly.
challenge in implementing such network with multi-agent In recent years, Mobile Adhoc Network (MOBILE
communication is the need of an efficient routing protocol for
AD-HOC NETWORK) has received marvelous attentions
multi-hop connectivity, frequently changing topology and
due to self-design, self-maintenance, and cooperative
dynamic routes.
environments. (Bing Wu, 2006)In MOBILE AD-HOC
This paper proposes a new multi-agent based routing NETWORK, all the nodes are mobile nodes and the
algorithm to facilitate the reliable communication in rural topology will be hanged rapidly. The structure of the
areas network. The proposed algorithm is named as Ant MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORK is shown in Figure1.0.
Algorithm for Mobile Ad-hoc Network. The proposed
algorithm is inspired from the ant colony optimization 3. BASICS AND BACKGROUND
metaheuristic and is based on swarm intelligence, uses simple
node-level management with probabilistic multi-path routing 3.1 Ant algorithm Basics
which highly resembles to the behavior of real world harvester
ants to find the shortest path between their nest and the food The idea of the ant algorithm is inspired from real
source. world ants observing the ways ants work in their colonies to
search for food. Ants searching for food travel towards food
KeyWords Mobile Ad-hoc network, Rural
and when they reach an intersection, they have to decide a
Communication Issue, Ant Colony Optimization, Multi-
branch or route to travel forward. This decision is based on
agent network, multi-path routing.
the concentration of pheromone trail left by ants while
traveling. Pheromone isa volatile substance left behind by
1. INTRODUCTION ants while traveling on a path. Ants are biologically blind in
nature. Therefore, they leave behind the pheromone trail to
Wireless ad hoc networks can be traced back to the Defense mark the path they travel and create the routes which they
Advanced Research Project Agency (DAPRPA) packet radio are able to smell. Concentration of pheromone on a path
networks (PRNet),which evolved into the survivable adaptive depicts the frequency of usage of the path. Paths with higher
radio networks. (J.A. Freebseryser, 2001). Wireless Ad-hoc pheromone concentration are more likely to be chosen by an
Networks operates without a fixed infrastructure. Multi-hop, ant.Since, the pheromone is a volatile substance, the
mobility, large network size combined with device
intensity of pheromone decreases with time due to diffusion.
heterogeneity and bandwidth and battery power limitations, all
Diffusion of pheromone adds dynamics to the route
these factors make the design of routing protocols a major
searching and decision making process.
challenge.

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 Prob . v j be the probability of visiting the node vj
Long route Destination
then, the equation can be represented as:

Pi , j
Probability of visiting node v j Prob . v j
Short route Pi , j
j Si

Source
Whereas, if node vjis not the one-step neighbor of
node vithen, the probability of visiting vj becomes 0. This
Fig 2.1 - Longer and shorter path from source to destination.
means that the ants can only travel to their one-step
neighboring nodes.
In figure 2.1, assume that there are two paths from
source (nest) to destination (food). Say, a group of n ants, If
j Si then, Prob . v j = 0
travelling from source to destination, reach the first
intersection. Lets assume that (n/2) number of ants chose
The probabilities choosing the next hope must
the longer path and the other (n/2) number of ants chose the
satisfy the constraint:
shorter path. While returning back, ants again have to make
the decision to choose the route back home. Since, the path Prob . v j
chosen by the ants is shorter, ants traveling from shorter j S i = 1, provided that i1, S
path will deposit pheromone on the shorter path more
rapidly while traveling back and forth, compared to the ants
An ant deposits a constant amount of pheromone
choosing the longer route. Whereas, the pheromone trail of
longer path diffuses away with time, decreasing its chances (say, P ) each time it travels via edge. So, while
to be chosen by new ants.Eventually, the pheromone
intensity on shorter path will be higher than that of transiting from node
v i to v j , the pheromone
alternative longer path and all the ants will chose the shorter
path. (Dorigo, Maniezzo, & Colorni, 1996) concentration on the edge e(i, j) changes as follows:

This approach used by ants can be used to design an Pi , j Pi , j P . Equation

algorithm with probabilistic multi-path routing which can fit
best in situations where the existence of links are not (i)
assured and link changes are frequent. Example: MOBILE
In a simple ant colony metaheuristic, the
AD-HOC NETWORK.
pheromone trail diffuses away with time. If we consider ants
3.2 Ant Colony Optimization metaheuristic algorithm living in environment where time is discrete, then the
diffusion of the pheromone takes place exponentially. The
Assume a graph G = (M, N), where M = number of equation can be represented as:
nodes and N = Number of edges, be the connected graph
with n number of nodes where n = | M |. vsbe the source Pi , j Pi , j .1C , where C 0,1 . Equation (ii)
node and vdbe the destination node on the graph G. Path
length be the total number of nodes on the path between vs
(Gunes & Udo Sorges, 2002)
and vd.
4. PROPOSED ROUTING ALGORITHM
Each pathe (i, j) Nof graph G connecting the
nodes vi and vj has an artificial pheromone concentration The proposed routing algorithm, Ant Algorithm for
value; say,Pi,j. The value is modified each time the ants Rural Communicaiton MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORK
travel that path. ValuePi,jreflects the frequency of usage of (AAMM), consists of 3 major phases. Following section
the path in the graph.If Si is the set of one-step neighboring describes the AAMM and adaptations from ant colony
nodes of viand vj is one of the neighbor of vi (i.e. vj Si), then optimization metaheuristics.
the ant located at node vi uses the pheromone concentration
value of the path e(i,j) (i.e. Pi,j)to determine the probability 4.1 Route Discovery
of visiting the node vj as next node(Jawahar, 2005). If
In this phase, new routes are created using the control
packets before the transmission of data packets. Forward ant

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(FANT) andbackward ant (BANT) are used for this purpose. from destination to source. After, the sender receives the
FANT is an agent which helps in tracking the source node BANT from the destination nodes, the route is formed and
whereas;BANT helps in tracking the destination node. transmission of data packets is possible.(Subha & Anitha,
FANT is a small packet which stores a unique sequence 2009)
number, used along with the source address, by the nodes to
identify the duplicate. Duplicate packets are destroyed by Fig 3.1 (a), shows the process of route discovery where
the nodes. each nodes broadcast FANT to one-hop neighboring nodes
until it reaches destination. In Fig 3.1 (b), BANT is
FANT is first broadcasted to all the one-hop neighbors transmitted back to source node creating multiple routes for
and if the destination is not found the neighbors forward the data transmission which shows that AAMM supports the
FANT to their neighbors and so on. The whole process goes multi-path routing.
on until the destination is found. Each node also stores the
recently forwarded packet details in its buffer to prevent the 4.2 Route Maintenance
loops. A node which receives the FANT for the very first
Once the routes are formed between source and
time, adds a record in the routing table. The record consists
destination using FANT and BANT agents, the second phase
of 3 attributes viz. destination address, next hop and
of algorithm will be to improve the routes during the
pheromone value. Source address of FANT is interpreted as
transmission of packets. AAMM algorithm does not need to
the destination address, the previous node is interpreted as
transmit special packets to maintain the network traffic. The
next node and the pheromone value is calculated using the
data packets transmitted by end-users are enough to perform
number of nodes the FANT travelled to reach that particular
the route maintenance. The pheromone values for the path
node.
keeps on changing as the data packets travel via the path
updating the artificial pheromone concentration based on
equation (i). Similarly, the pheromone concentration for a
route also decreases with time using equation (ii). This way,
1 the data packets behave like natural agents (ants) and keep
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optimizing the routes as they travel in network and the most
optimal path is opted by data packets with the time.

A 5 B To prevent the disappearance of the alternative routes,

which may lead to saturation mode of network, AAMM uses
an agent called update ants (UANT) to update the network
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in timely manner. This keeps the network from getting
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saturated and updates the pheromone values for all the
alternative routes as multiple routes are very crucial for
Fig 3.1 (a) Transmission of FANT from Source node A to dynamic network like MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORK.
Destination node B
Alternative routes can come handy during the breakdown of
the route as it saves from the overhead of initiating the route
discovery phase.(Sethi & Udgata, 2010)
1 4
4.3 Link Failure Handling

5 Due to the mobile nature of nodes in MOBILE AD-

A B HOC NETWORK, sometimes the routes may be interrupted
or the position of nodes may change. AARM can identify
2 the failure in root when it receives the error message for a
6 certain link while broadcasting the data packets. This kind
of link failure is handled by deactivating the link, ceasing its
Fig 3.1 (b) Transmission of BANT from Destination node B to
pheromone value to NULL which means no further
Source node A transmission takes place via that node.

After the FANT reaches the destination, the information Alternative link is searched using the routing table, and
is extracted and the FANT is destroyed. The destination upon the discovery of alternative link the data packets are
node creates a BANT and sends it back to the source node. forwarded via alternative path. Else, neighboring hops are
BANT travels in network similar to FANT, creating routes informed for local transmission. Using neighboring hops
ensures that unsuccessful data packets are re-routed using

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neighboring nodes instead of original sending nodes The algorithm, on comparison, proved to be better than the
reducing the delay in process. In case both the alternatives similar existing algorithms like ARA and AODV in terms of
do not work, and the transmitting node receives the negative dynamicity, error handling and reducing overhead. The
acknowledgement (NACK), the new route discovery phase algorithm proposed is robust, dynamic, scalable and flexible
is initiated.This approach of local transmission saves end-to- and thus, can be used in Rural Communication and defense
end delivery time. sector with high degree of reliability.

7. LITERATURE REVIEW
5. COMPARISON WITH SIMILAR EXISTING ALGORITHMS
Table 4 List of the research paper used ( (J.A. Freebseryser, 2001)
Table 4 Comparison of AAMM with ARA and AODV (Sethi & Udgata,
2010) TITLE AUTHO YEAR CONCLUSION
R
AAMM ARA AODV Wireless Lu Han October explains what is
Ad-hoc 8, 2004 Mobile Ad-hoc
Local Transmission Yes No No Networks networks and its
Pheromone update Yes Yes No character
mechanism The Ant System: Marco 1996 The research paper
Optimization by a Dorigo explains the way ant
Multipath transmission Yes Yes No
colony of colonies function.
Automatic New route Yes No No cooperating agents
discovery Mobile Ad hoc Kavita 2007 demonstrate the
Networks: Taneja R. challenges and Future
Challenges and B. Patel of the system
Future
Table 4 shows the comparison of AAMM with similar Swarm intelligence Gianni Di 2005 The Paper explains
nature of algorithms namely Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance for routing in Caro the routing algorithm
Vector Routing (AODVC) and Ant colony based Routing mobile ad hoc for the system.
networks
Algorithm (ARA).AAMM provides the local transmission
facility which saves the end-to-end delivery time in 8. REFERENCE
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route discovery as it uses the new kind of ants namely
journal. 2-4.
Update Ants (UANT) for preventing the network from being
saturated. The pheromone update mechanism and multi path Haas, Z. J. (2002). Secure Routing for Mobile Ad hoc
transmission are present in dynamic algorithms like AAMM Networks. distributed Network and simulation
and ARA but not in traditional algorithms like AODV.(Sethi conference , 1-2.
& Udgata, 2010)Presence of all these features makes
AAMM an appropriate routing algorithm for MOBILE AD- J.A. Freebseryser, B. L. (2001). A DoD perspective on
HOC NETWORK with reduced overhead and high . mobile ad hoc networks. Ad hc networking ,
reliability.
29-51.
6. CONCLUSION
Pietro Michiardi, R. M. (2010). Ad hoc networks security.
The paper introduced the new approach for routing in Security in Networks , 1-2.
MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORK blending together the
widely used ant colony optimization meta-heuristic and Shuyao Yu. (2010). A security architecture for Mobile Ad
some intelligent techniques like local transmission and Hoc Networks. Security Architecture, 2-4.
automatic route discovery using UANT. Introduction of the
new artificially intelligent techniques in existing approach
Image Reference:
like ACO resulted in the modeling of the new multi-agent
based algorithm which can be implemented in Rural Q.Fang. (n.d.). Retrieved from
Communication MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORK for http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/lgl/papers/fzg-
transmission of critical Rural Communication information. lscptea-2003/image.gif

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