Authors: Associate Professor Dr. Santosh G Kupendra
Abstract: Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) operate in decentralized and volatile environments where the operational lifespan of the network is strictly bounded by the remaining battery capacity of its constituent nodes. Traditional reactive protocols like AODV execute route discovery by flooding Route Request (RREQ) packets to find the shortest available path. However, this energy-blind discovery process frequently incorporates low-battery nodes into heavy-traffic routing paths, accelerating their power depletion and causing premature network partitioning. This paper proposes an enhanced AODV-EXT-BP (AODV Extended with Battery Power) architecture that fundamentally redesigns the route discovery phase by integrating residual energy as the primary routing metric. The proposed architecture modifies the standard RREQ forwarding logic by embedding a localized energy evaluation mechanism. During route discovery, intermediate nodes assess their current residual battery power against a dynamic threshold. Nodes operating below this critical threshold deliberately drop or delay the forwarding of RREQ packets, compelling the source node to establish paths through more energy-abundant nodes. Simulated under rigorous mobility and traffic constraints, the AODV-EXT-BP architecture proves highly effective at decentralizing power consumption. Performance evaluations reveal that the proposed residual energy-based discovery mechanism significantly reduces the incidence of localized energy bottlenecks, prolongs the time-to-first-node-death, and enhances overall network resilience. By actively routing around energy-depleted nodes, the architecture maximizes node availability and network connectivity without incurring unacceptable latency penalties during the route establishment phase.
