A Tactical Adaptive Routing Algorithm with Reinforced Energy and Risk Awareness for Battlefield Communication Networks

This paper introduces TAR-RERA (Tactical Adaptive Routing with Reinforced Energy and Risk Awareness), a novel routing algorithm designed for ad-hoc communication in hostile or dynamic environments such as battlefield zones and disaster-response operations. Unlike conventional routing methods, TAR-RERA adapts dynamically to threat zones and energy levels, ensuring resilient and energy-efficient paths in the presence of adversarial risks. The algorithm integrates threat-aware path computation with energy balancing and is benchmarked against the standard Dijkstra algorithm across two configurations: fixed and dynamic source-destination scenarios. Extensive MATLAB-based simulations were conducted over 10 randomized network topologies for each scenario. Results in the fixed configuration show that TAR-RERA achieves a 100% success rate and an 80% threat avoidance rate—double that of Dijkstra—while maintaining a reasonable increase in cost. In the dynamic configuration, TAR-RERA sustains a 99.4% success rate and outperforms Dijkstra in avoidance and cost metrics. Across both cases, TAR-RERA consistently finds secure paths while minimizing threat exposure and balancing route efficiency. These findings demonstrate TAR-RERA’s effectiveness as a robust solution for tactical wireless routing in real-time, threat-prone conditions without significantly compromising path length or delivery rate.