QoS-aware routing for video streaming in multi-rate Ad hoc Networks

In this work, we propose an adaptive congestion control and avoidance mechanism as an enhancement to our earlier proposed QoS-aware routing protocol. We utilize Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithms for adaptive multipath routing and use the monitoring feature of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) for QoS computation. So, merging these two methodologies we propose a powerful adaptive multipath QoS-aware routing protocol based on ACO (QoRA). The adaptive nature of QoRA signifies the support of multi-rate data transmission determined by the QoS constraints available on the path. The QoRA routing protocol firstly determines multiple routes based on the applications QoS requirements. Secondly, the congestion control mechanism of QoRA prevents the communication flow from entering into the congested node. QoRA performance is tested for real-time multimedia applications over realistic scenarios simulated using SUMO. The real-time video applications are simulated using H.264/SVC encoded video trace files. We provide an in-depth discussion of the operation of the QoRA routing protocol, which is implemented in the ns-3 simulator. The results obtained after simulation indicates that the enhanced QoRA approach shows better performance for delay and jitter constraints in urban scenarios for multimedia applications as compared to our earlier approach.