Adaptive Clustering and Trust‐Based Hybrid Butterfly‐Chameleon Swarm Algorithm for Secure and Efficient Routing in MANETs

ABSTRACT This work presents a novel routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) that integrates adaptive clustering with a trust‐based hybrid butterfly‐chameleon swarm algorithm (HBCSA) to enhance security, efficiency, and reliability. The adaptive clustering mechanism dynamically organizes nodes based on mobility and proximity, thereby reducing routing overhead and improving scalability. The HBCSA integrates the global exploration strength of the butterfly optimization algorithm and the local exploitation ability of the chameleon swarm algorithm, while a trust model ensures the exclusion of malicious nodes during route formation. A multi‐objective fitness function further optimizes path selection by considering energy efficiency, trustworthiness, and link stability. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol achieves superior performance compared to existing methods, attaining a packet delivery ratio (PDR) of 95.4%, a node transmission lifetime (NTL) of 86.1%, and a node compromise filtering (NCF) rate of 91.7%, along with a reduced end‐to‐end delay of 133 ms and minimal routing overhead. These outcomes validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in delivering secure, energy‐efficient, and reliable routing for highly dynamic MANET environments.