Models for pheromone evaluation in Ant Systems forMobile Ad-hoc networks

On a mobile ad-hoc network environment where the resources are scarce, the knowledge about network’s link state is essential to optimize the routing procedures. This paper presents a study about different pheromone evaluation models and how they react to possible changes in traffic rate. Observing how the pheromone value on a link changes, it could be possible to identify certain patterns which can indicate the path status. For this study, it was compared the behavior of the Ant System evaluation model, with a Temporal Active Pheromone model (a biological approach) and a Progressive Pheromone Reduction model with / without maximum pheromone limit