Number of Paths and Neighbours Effect on Multipath Routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper the number of paths in a multipath routing protocol and distribution of neighbour nodes in the discovered routes are studied for networks with frequent topology changes. Specifically, we consider how the placement of neighbour nodes, which are used by the source node to reach a destination in a multipath routing protocol, affects total network power consumption. We develop an analytical model, verified by simulation, which shows that, while the network performance is affected by source node speed and route length, it also depends on the geometric arrangement of neighbour nodes around the source node. The results reveal that total network power consumption is minimized when the moving source node has six well distributed neighbour nodes, and one path to the destination via each neighbour node.