Multiple Route Selection for Avoiding Single Point Failure in Flying Ad Hoc Network (FANET)

In Flying Ad Hoc Network (FANET), routing is a major challenging task due to dynamic network topology and inadequate resources. This can be resolved by designing reliable Routing Protocols (RPs) that assist in boosting the network’s Quality-of-Service (QoS) performance. Among many RPs, an Energy-aware and Predictive Fuzzy Logic with Consistent Link-based Copy adaptive Transmit-based RP (EPFL-CLCT-RP) has achieved high data transmission reliability and low energy utilization by limiting the redundant transmission of data duplicates over the network. However, in the case of multipath routing, there can be high delay and routing overhead when choosing an alternate route in case of link failure in the primary optimal path. Therefore, a novel Multipath EPFL-CLCT-RP (MEPFL-CLCT-RP) is proposed in this article to transfer data in multi-hop FANETs. The key goal is to reduce routing overhead and delay in multi-hop FANETs. First, the Fuzzy Logic (FL) system is used to choose multiple paths from the source to destination nodes based on near-optimal solutions for data transmission. Then, a new routing metric is determined for all available routes in the multi-path set according to the link survival probability, and the path with the highest link survival probability is elected as a backup path. During link failures, if the source node cannot create a valid alternate path by considering its nearby nodes, then the selected backup path is used for data transmission. If the source node can create a new valid reliable path, then it transmits the data duplicates through the newly created path using the CLCT method. Moreover, extensive simulations demonstrate that the MEPFL-CLCT-RP significantly reduces routing overhead and delay compared to traditional RPs in FANETs.