Abstract
The dynamic autonomous mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) allow nodes to move everywhere quickly and communicate without the support of a network infrastructure. The movement of mobile nodes in MANETs leads to several issues, such as changeable topology, energy limitations, path conservation, and bandwidth ineffectiveness. This would negatively impact the network’s QoS. The primary aim of the present study is to select the optimal path in MANETs using the clustering technique for variable nodes (i.e., 100–1000). The network performance characteristic and energy efficiency of the present ORSMAN protocol are simulated in the ns3 simulator. The research results demonstrate that compared to the current OPSTSA, EAAORS, EERS, and OEERS techniques, the suggested ORSMAN has a higher packet delivery ratio, the lowest latency, the lowest jitters, and superior throughput. The maximum improvement in throughput is 29.81%, and in energy efficiency, it is 9.67% compared to current techniques. Additionally, a trade‐off study between energy efficiency and QoS reveals that the performance characteristics enhance QoS while reducing energy efficiency. This reduction may be attributed to variations in throughput, jitter, and latency. The total QoS performance was improved by 22.16% for the present study compared to the current techniques.