PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF ROUTING IN WIRELESS AD HOC NETWORKS USING HYBRID SWARM INTELLIGENCE-BASED HYBRID OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM IN NS-2

Abstract

Routing in wireless ad hoc networks is challenging due to dynamic topology, interference, and limited node resources. Traditional single-metric routing schemes often suffer from high packet overhead, route instability, and poor performance under heavy load. This paper presents a Hybrid Swarm Intelligence-based Hybrid Optimization Routing (HSI-HOR) approach for wireless ad hoc networks. The proposed method uses a hybrid optimization algorithm combining features of swarm intelligence techniques using Optimization to select energy-efficient, low-delay, and reliable routes while minimizing routing control overhead. The algorithm is implemented in NS-2 by extending a reactive routing protocol and is evaluated under different node densities and traffic loads. Performance is compared with a baseline AODV-like protocol in terms of packet delivery ratio, average end-to-end delay, routing overhead, and energy consumption. Simulation results show that HSI-HOR improves packet delivery ratio and reduces routing overhead and delay, especially under medium and high loads, demonstrating its suitability for performance-critical wireless communication scenarios.