Energy-Efficient Trust-Based Routing Using Fuzzy–Ant Colony Optimization in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are highly vulnerable to security threats due to their dynamic topology, open wireless communication medium, and lack of centralized control. To address these challenges, this work proposes a trust-aware Fuzzy-Ant Colony Optimization (Fuzzy–ACO) routing framework that employs an interconnected framework in which fuzzy clustering organizes nodes into clusters, the intrusion detection module identifies malicious nodes, and a trust evaluation mechanism quantifies node reliability. The proposed components collectively guide the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO)–based routing process to establish secure and energy-efficient communication paths. The proposed approach is evaluated through extensive simulations and compared against well-established benchmark routing schemes, including AODV, DSR, and conventional ACO-based routing protocols, which are widely used as baselines for performance evaluation in MANET research. Performance analysis is conducted using key metrics such as packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, energy consumption, and routing overhead under varying network sizes, node densities, mobility conditions, and attack scenarios. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed Fuzzy–ACO framework consistently outperforms the benchmark schemes by achieving higher packet delivery ratio, reduced energy consumption, and improved resilience against malicious attacks while maintaining low computational overhead suitable for resource-constrained MANET environments.