RTLB-DSR: A load-balancing DSR based QoS routing protocol in MANETs

Providing the Quality of Service in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) is not straightforward due to the unstable wireless link, restricted capacity and irregular availability. It has been shown that the shortest path routing does not lead to a balanced load distribution among nodes. Instead, it offers a heavier load to the central nodes which may lead to an increase in the probability of congestion and energy exhaustion in these nodes. In this paper, we present Real-Time Load Balancing Dynamic Source Routing (RTLB-DSR), a DSR-based load-balanced routing that provides Quality of Service in the network through a differentiating service method among best effort and real-time flows. Simulation results show that Quality of Service metrics, such as end-to-end delay, packet lost, and jitter, are improved through the proposed routing algorithm.