Optimizing Routing Protocols for Ad Hoc Network

An ad hoc network is a collection of wireless mobile nodes dynamically forming a temporary network without the use of any existing network infrastructure or centralized administration. This paper evaluates some of the existing routing protocols such as dynamic source routing (DSR), ad hoc on-demand distance vector routing (AODV), destination-sequenced distance-vector (DSDV) and proposed a new protocol. An attempt has been made to compare the performance of two prominent on-demand reactive routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks: DSR and AODV, along with the traditional proactive DSDV protocol. These protocols involve communication overheads of route maintenance and route discovery and use single route. The nodes which do not possess enough power to carry out the data delivery process should not be used in route selection. Taking into account all these parameters, a new routing protocol has been proposed. This protocol uses the concept of virtual node and the power feature of a mobile node. The scheme establishes the multiple paths without transmitting any extra control message. A simulation model with MAC and physical layer models is used to study interlayer interactions and their performance implications. The performance differentials for the existing ones are analyzed using varying network load, mobility, throughput in data delivery and network size. These simulations are carried out based on the Rice Monarch Project that has made substantial extensions to the NS-2 network simulator to run ad hoc simulations