Improved proactive routing protocol considering node density using game theory in dense networks

In mobile ad hoc networks, network nodes cooperate by packet forwarding from the source to the destination. As the networks become denser, more control packets are forwarded, thus consuming more bandwidth and may cause packet loss. Recently, game theory has been applied to address several problems in mobile ad hoc networks like energy effciency. In this paper, we apply game theory to reduce the control packets in dense networks. We choose a proactive routing protocol, Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol. We consider two strategies in this method: willingness_always and willingness_never to reduce the multipoint relay (MPR) ratio in dense networks. Thus, nodes with less influence on other nodes are excluded from nomination as MPRs. Simulations were used to confirm the effciency of using our improved method. The results show that the MPR ratio was significantly reduced, and packet delivery ratio was increased compared to the conventional protocol.