Load leveling in mobile ad-hoc networks to support end-to-end delay reduction, QoS and energy leveling

A method for routing message data from a source node to a destination node in a mobile ad hoc network comprising a plurality of intermediate mobile nodes between the source node and the destination node, and a plurality of wireless communication links connecting the nodes together, the method comprising:

• prioritizing the message data according to a type-of-service (ToS);
• ranking routes from the source node to the destination node according to an end-to-end delay metric;
• determining whether intermediate mobile nodes on routes between the source node and the destination node are service sensitive nodes;
• and
• distributing message data to the destination node on the routes based upon the ToS of the message data, the end-to-end delay metric, and the service sensitive node determination
• including distributing message data having a same ToS on multiple routes, and distributing message data having higher priority ToS on higher ranked routes.

A mobile node for use in a mobile ad hoc network defined by a plurality of mobile nodes and a plurality of wireless communication links connecting the plurality of mobile nodes together, the mobile node comprising:

• a communications device to wirelessly communicate with other nodes of the plurality of nodes via the wireless communication links;
• and
• a controller to route communications via the communications device, the communications comprising message data prioritized according to a type-of-service (ToS), the controller comprising
• a route discovery unit to discover routing to a destination node,
• a route ranking unit to rank discovered routes according to quality of service (Qos), and
• a message data distribution unit to distribute the message data to the destination node along a plurality of the discovered routes based upon the ToS of the message data and the Qos of the discovered routes so that message data having a same ToS is distributed on multiple discovered routes, and message data having higher priority ToS is distributed on higher ranked discovered routes.