Abstract:

In mobile Ad hoc networks (MANET), a multipath load balancing mechanism was proposed in order to distribute the traffic evenly into the network and alleviate partial congestion. Load balancing method was realized at the source node after detecting the current flows in each node by using Bloom filter. The estimated link lifetime, the endtoend delay and the existing traffic along the forwarding paths were used together as the routing metric of multipath load balancing mechanism. The proposed multipath load balancing mechanism was evaluated and analyzed through simulations, which showed that the performance was better than the traditional multipath routing mechanism, such as the packet delivery ratio, the endtoend delay and the control traffic; the results also showed that multipath load balancing mechanism suited for the scenario with small node density. 

Key words: mobile Ad hoc networks, load balancing, flow detection, link lifetime estimation, Bloom filter