Hybris‐E2: A Novel Routing Protocol for Energy Efficiency and Load Balancing in MANETs

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn the rapidly evolving landscape of wireless networks, mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) have emerged as a crucial technology for enabling communication in dynamic and infrastructure‐less environments. Particularly in disaster recovery scenarios, where traditional communication infrastructures may be compromised, MANETs provide a flexible and resilient means of ensuring the continuous flow of information among mobile nodes. However, the efficiency and reliability of MANETs are often hindered by two primary challenges: energy consumption and load balancing. The rapid deployment of MANETs in disaster recovery operations poses significant challenges, particularly in energy efficiency and load balancing. This study presents Hybris‐E2, a novel routing protocol designed to address these challenges by integrating a hybrid clustering approach with dynamic power control (DPC) and adaptive traffic shaping (ATS). The protocol's multi‐layered architecture optimizes energy consumption by adjusting transmission power according to node distance while simultaneously ensuring balanced traffic distribution across the network. Through extensive simulations under various network scenarios, Hybris‐E2 demonstrated superior performance in terms of energy efficiency, network lifetime, packet delivery ratio, and scalability compared to existing protocols. The proposed protocol is executed in the NS3 simulation environment and achieves an accuracy of 95.5% in packet delivery ratio, making it a robust solution for maintaining efficient communication in MANETs, particularly in unpredictable and high‐demand environments such as disaster recovery.