Each node in a MANET serves as a host and/or router
generating, consuming or forwarding information [7]. These
nodes are fitted with and powered by batteries. The
depletion of participating nodes’ battery power in a routing
path will shorten the network lifetime. As charging or
replacing batteries on site is a difficult operation, it is
necessary to use the available energy efficiently to extend
the lifetime of the nodes [8-9]. Developing an energy
efficient routing scheme is one way of achieving optimized
performance of nodes.
Nodes consume energy while transmitting beacon
signals to neighboring nodes for the purpose of detecting
their existence or transmitting data to another node [4].When
an intermediate node has been selected as a router, it
consumes more energy than an idle node as it is actively
involved in communication [10]. Thus, the nodes’ residual
energy is important in determining the path to successfully
completing data transfer without interruption. Hence a
routing protocol that considers the nodes’ residual energy
will perform better than the protocols that do not.