Dynamic Power Conservation Routing in MANETs: A New Approach

In mobile ad-hoc wireless networks (MANETs), a node is expected to forward packets from the source to the destination (on the behalf of the source), over multiple hops, for the benefit of other nodes. The residual battery level of a node in an ad-hoc network is a very critical and crucial resource as the life of the node is determined it. In this paper, our intention is to conserve the battery power of a node. To accomplish this, we make an effort to apply Nash Equilibrium and the underlying Game Theory concepts to an ad-hoc network in a dynamic way. We define an ad-hoc network model and identify the conditions under which the nodes participating in the communication can form equilibrium. We are following a distributed approach in calculating the routes to a destination depending on the individual battery energy of each of the nodes in that route. For this we are using Nash Equilibrium as a greedy algorithm, dynamically, to determine whether a node will use its battery power for routing packets through it.