ABSTRACT
Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a self organized network where network is set up on the fly. Some of the issues in
MANETs are routing, security, power management, bandwidth management, mobility management, etc. Zone Routing
Protocol (ZRP) provides a flexible solution for discovering and maintaining routes in MANETs. This paper addresses the
problem of routing by considering link stability (link expiry time) and node mobility. Link instability and node mobility
causes frequent topology changes that result in routing complexity. The proposed Zone and Link Expiry based Routing
Protocol (ZLERP) for MANETs is an enhancement to existing ZRP that offers better routing services. An attempt is made
to limit control overheads in the network by selecting the path with stable links between two nodes. Nodes measure link
stability using the received signal strengths from neighboring nodes at periodic time intervals. The proposed routing
protocol is simulated in several network scenarios to test its operation effectiveness. It is observed that modified ZRP
performs better than existing ZRP.
Keywords: - MANET, ZRP, Routing, Link expiry, ZLERP