Performance Comparison and Analysis of Mobile Ad Hoc Routing Protocols
Computer Science & Engineering: An International Journal (CSEIJ), 1 (1):
1-9 (April 2011)Abstract
A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a wireless network that uses multi-hop peer-to-peer routing instead
of static network infrastructure to provide network connectivity. MANETs have applications in rapidly
deployed and dynamic military and civilian systems. The network topology in a MANET usually changes
with time. Therefore, there are new challenges for routing protocols in MANETs since traditional routing
protocols may not be suitable for MANETs. Researchers are designing new MANET routing protocols
and comparing and improving existing MANET routing protocols before any routing protocols are
standardized using simulations. However, the simulation results from different research groups are not
consistent with each other. This is because of a lack of consistency in MANET routing protocol models
and application environments, including networking and user traffic profiles. Therefore, the simulation
scenarios are not equitable for all protocols and conclusions cannot be generalized. Furthermore, it is
difficult for one to choose a proper routing protocol for a given MANET application. According to the
aforementioned issues, this paper focuses on MANET routing protocols. Specifically, my contribution
includes the characterization of different routing protocols and compare and analyze the performance of
different routing protocols