Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are infrastructureless networks formed by wireless mobile devices. Routing in MANETs is a process where the best path will be selected so that packets will be forwarded. When a MANET is heavily loaded, single path routing begins to have congestion problems. To cope with this issue, multipath routing protocols were proposed improving the single path routing in terms of packet delivery ratio and quality of service (QoS). Normally, QoS metrics are used to classify paths in order to chose those (i.e., number of paths >2) who satisfy the QoS-user-requirements. Besides, paths are classified with an equal metrics weights which we do not consider as an optimal way. In this article, we aimed to design a new form of distributing weight values for metrics so that paths would be classified in a better way. Each time we want to classify paths, our proposal seeks to give a proper value to each metric weight depending on the metric current value with respect to an average one previously defined. We consider that depending on the variation of metric value, a corresponding weight to this current variation must be given. To achieve that, a simple algorithm has been designed. Finally, paths are classified taking into account our algorithm to calculate all weights value. Simulations have been done to show the benefits of our proposal where interfering traffic and mobility of the nodes are present.

Peer Reviewed