Topology discovery in ad hoc wireless networks using mobile agents

Extensive research on mobile agents has been rife with the growing interests in network computing. In this paper, we have discussed a mobile multi-agent-based framework to address the aspect of topology discovery in ad hoc wireless network environment. In other words, we have designed a multi-agent based protocol to make the nodes in the network topology aware. Our primary aim is to collect all topology-related information from each node in the network and distribute them periodically (as updates) to other nodes through mobile agents. The notion of stigmergic communication has been used through the implementation of a shared information cache in each node. Moreover, we have defined a concept of link stability and information aging based on which a predictive algorithm running on each node can predict the current network topology based on the current network information stored at that node. We have demonstrated through performance evaluation of a simulated system that the use of mobile multi-agent framework would be able to make each node in the network topology aware, without consuming large portion of network capacity. As a direct outcome of infiltrating topology information into the nodes, the foundations for designing efficient routing scheme, distributed network management and implementing communication awareness get automatically laid.