Energy and link expiration time aware MPR selection based modified OLSR protocol for UAV ad hoc networks

Abstract

Flying Ad-hoc Network (FANET) is a self-configured highly dynamic decentralized wireless ad-hoc network, composed of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). These networks find applications in modern civilian and military missions due to their capability for rapid deployment, and wide-area surveillance. However, due to highly dynamic nature and limited battery resources of UAV nodes, the links between UAVs may frequently be disrupted. This in turn reduces the energy levels of the UAV nodes and gets exhausted due to periodic rerouting. Further, the excessive routing updates limit network stability and reduce operational lifetime. Thus, to address these limitations, we introduce an enhanced routing approach that integrates energy awareness with link stability assessment for more reliable MPR selection is proposed. The proposed protocol considers both residual energy and link expiration time routing metrics into account for new UAV-MPR selection in FANETs. The UAV nodes with maximum residual energy and link expiration time are selected as the new UAV-MPR nodes. The link expiration time is estimated via mobility, direction and position information of the UAVs. Later the packet forwarding decision of UAV-MPR is taken by applying Bayesian uncertainty theorem. The effectiveness of the proposed EL-OLSR is obtained through the Network Simulator (NS)-3 and compared with the existing OLSR routing schemes. The simulation results clearly show that the proposed scheme achieves higher packet delivery and throughput while s acclimates significantly reducing energy consumption, latency, and routing overhead. Finally, the integration of an energy aware based MPR selection mechanism with Bayesian stability-driven forwarding model enables robust performance validation, highlighting superior routing efficiency in high-speed UAV networks.