A Survey Paper on Ant Colony Optimization Routing Algorithm for Selecting Multiple Feasible Paths for Packet Switched Networks

ACO algorithms for datagram networks was given by Di Caro & Dorigo, in year 1996. Basic mechanisms in typical ACO routing algorithms is Ant-like agents are proactively generated at the nodes to find/check paths toward assigned destinations Ants move hop-by-hop according to a exploratory routing policy based on the local routing .After reaching their destination, ants retrace their path and update nodes routing information according to the quality of the path. Routing information is statistical estimates of the time-to-go to the destination maintained in pheromone arrays. Data are probabilistically spread over the paths according to their estimated quality as stored in the pheromone variables.