Abstract: Proposes a traffic-based load balancing routing protocol (T-LBRP), where the traffic load is computed according to the interface queue length of MAC layer, with the average network load defined as the threshold value. The idea of dynamic threshold is introduced to judge if an intermediate node is overloaded in the route discovery phase. Then, the RREQ messages are forwarded selectively according to the load status of each node so as to prevent heavily loaded nodes from routing. At the destination node, the response messages along the optimum lightly loaded route are selected via delayed response. Simulation results proved that the T-LBRP can raise the delivery ratio by about 7%, with the end-to-end delay and normalized routing reduced by about 25% and 45%, respectively, in comparison with conventional protocols.