Multipath load balancing & rate based congestion control for mobile ad hoc networks (MANET)

In mobile ad hoc network (MANET), congestion is one of the most important restrictions that deteriorate the performance of the whole network. Multipath routing can balance the load better than the single path routing in ad hoc networks, thereby reducing the congestion by dividing the traffic in several paths. This paper presents a new approach Multipath Load Balancing and Rate Based Congestion Control (MLBRBCC) based on rate control mechanism for avoiding congestion in network communication flows. The proposed approach contains an adaptive rate control based technique in which the destination node copies the estimated rate from the intermediate nodes and the feedback is forwarded to the sender through an acknowledgement packet. Since the sending rate is adjusted based on the estimated rate, this technique is better than the traditional congestion control technique. Simulation results show that proposed technique has better packet delivery ratio and improved throughput and also controls the congestion in more effective manner.