A Swarm Autonomous Routing Algorithm (SARA) is performed by simple communication node devices for node to node communications in a network, especially a Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET). Each node maintains a table of pheromone values for known neighbor nodes. Pheromone values are dynamic for adapting to a dynamic arrangement of nodes, and are updated either passively or actively. Routing tables are not used. When a node receives a packet, it uses the pheromone table to simply determine whether or not to forward (rebroadcast) the packet to a neighbor node, and if possible, determines and indicates the best neighbor node for next forwarding the packet. Destination Zone Routing (DZR) and Swarm Location Service (SLS) are alternative enhancements of SARA that can be used for more efficient routing when nodes are location aware/knowledgeable. SLS may also be used to improve routing algorithms other than SARA.