An Efficient Quality of Service Routing Protocol for 6G Ad Hoc Networks

ABSTRACT The 6th generation mobile communication systems (6G) will be launched by 2030. The 6G architecture will encompass Space‐Aerial‐Ground‐Sea domains to deliver seamless network services with ultra‐high data rates and the capacity to connect hundreds of billions of mobile devices. Moreover, network architectures are evolving from base station‐centric to edge‐centric models, with mobile devices equipped with Machine‐to‐Machine (M2M) modules that enable self‐configuration and self‐establishing for efficient in‐network communication, thus forming 6G ad hoc networks (6G ad hoc). Thanks to their flexibility in establishing connections and transferring data, ad hoc networks have proven to be highly effective across a wide array of 6G Industrial Internet of Things (6G IIoT) applications, serving human‐centric needs such as healthcare, transportation, smart agriculture, smart retail, and IIoT ecosystems. However, due to the distributed nature of mobile ad hoc networks, which do not rely on central devices like base stations, ensuring Quality of Service (QoS) remains one of the primary challenges in 6G IIoT systems. In this study, we propose an adaptive routing protocol (6G‐ARP) for 6G ad hoc networks. By accounting for throughput and hop number metrics in the decision‐making process, the proposed solution selects optimal paths and improves the QoS for 6G ad hoc networks. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol enhances performance in terms of packet delivery ratio, latency, throughput, routing overhead, and QoS support compared to existing protocols.