A unified approach to enhance the performance of ZRP for MANETs on an urban terrain

In this paper, we unified two new algorithms, i.e., to selectively Bordercast the control packets in order to reduce the network load by limiting the number of control packets when ZRP searches for a new route. The second algorithm is proposed to optimize the performance of Query control mechanisms for the Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP) for mobile ad hoc networks for communication on an urban terrain. ZRP proactively maintains routing information for a local neighbourhood (routing zone), while reactively acquiring routes to destinations beyond the routing zone. This hybrid routing approach can be more efficient than traditional Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP) framework. However, without proper query control techniques, the ZRP cannot provide the expected reduction in the control traffic. Our proposed algorithm enhances the structure of the routing zone to provide enhanced detection and prevention of overlapping queries. These techniques can be applied to single or multiple channel mobile adhoc networks to improve both the delay and control traffic performance of ZRP. Our new algorithm allows ZRP to provide routes to all accessible network nodes, with less control traffic than purely proactive link state or purely reactive route discovery, and with less delay than conventional flood searching. The performance evaluation via simulations using a well known simulator QualNet version 5.0 shows that the new approach has better performance than the traditional ZRP.