Performance evaluation and comparison of different ad hoc routing protocols

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a dynamic wireless network that can be formed without the need for any pre-existing infrastructure in which each node can act as a router. One of the main challenges MANET is the design of robust routing algorithms that adapt to the frequent and randomly changing network topology. In recent years, a variety of routing protocols have been proposed and several of these have been already extensively simulated or implemented as well. In this paper, we compare the performance of different protocols for ad hoc networks – Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV), Location-Aided Routing (LAR), Ad Hoc On-Demand Multipath Distant Vector (AOMDV) routing and Location-Aided Multipath Routing (LAMR). Therefore, we propose a location multipath routing-based method by extension of LAR. A simulation model with MAC and physical layer models is used to study interlayer interactions and their performance implications. The performance differentials are analyzed using varying network load and mobility. Simulations demonstrate the performance benefits of our proposal LAMR over LAR and AODV in most movement scenarios. AOMDV uses higher bandwidth than LAMR due to more frequent flooding of control packets. This paper directly discusses the performance evaluation and comparison of four routing protocols. Moreover, we also discuss the solutions for security in a MANET briefly, and address discussion and directions for future research.