Efficient multi-class routing protocol for heterogeneous mobile ad hoc networks

Efficient routing is very important for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Most of the existing routing protocols consider homogeneous ad hoc networks, in which all nodes are of the same type, i.e., they have the same communication capabilities and characteristics. Although a homogeneous network model is simple and easy to analyze, it misses important characteristics of many realistic MANETs such as military battlefield networks. In addition, a homogeneous ad hoc network suffers from poor scalability. In many ad hoc networks, multiple types of nodes do co-exist; and nodes having larger transmission power, higher transmission data rate, and better processing capability, are more reliable and robust than other nodes. Hence, a heterogeneous network model is more realistic and provides many advantages for designing more efficient routing protocols. In this paper, we present a new routing protocol called multi-class (MC) routing, which is specifically designed for heterogeneous MANETs. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the MC routing has very good performance, and out performs a popular routing protocol AODV (ad hoc on demand distance vector), in terms of reliability, scalability, route discovery latency, overhead, as well as packet delay and throughput.