Immune-Regulated Swarm Intelligence for Energy- Stable Routing in Mobile AdHoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are characterized by dynamic topology, limited node energy, and frequent link failures, which collectively pose significant challenges to reliable and energy-stable routing. Existing routing protocols and bio-inspired optimization techniques often rely on static parameter tuning, suffer from premature convergence, and lack adaptive mechanisms to preserve route diversity under high mobility conditions. These limitations lead to increased energy consumption, frequent route breakages, and degraded network lifetime. To address these issues, this paper proposes an Immune-Regulated Swarm Intelligence (IRIS)-based routing framework designed to achieve energy-stable and resilient data transmission in MANETs. The proposed approach integrates swarm-based multi-path exploration with fuzzy logic-based route fitness evaluation and an artificial immune regulation mechanism that dynamically suppresses weak routes while reinforcing high-affinity paths. Immune memory is further employed to prevent repeated selection of unstable routes, enabling rapid recovery from link failures. The performance of the proposed routing protocol is evaluated using extensive simulations conducted in the NS-3 environment under varying node mobility and traffic conditions. The proposed framework supports Sustainable Development Goals SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) by promoting energy-efficient and resilient wireless communication systems. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves improvements of up to 12-18% in packet delivery ratio, 15-22% reduction in energy consumption, and significantly lower end-to-end delay compared to conventional AODV, PSO-based, and ACO-based routing protocols.