Performance evaluation of routing protocols for MANET

An ad hoc network is a collection of autonomous mobile nodes to forming an instant multihop radio infrastructure-less network in a dynamic topology. Each node in Ad hoc network, functions as host and router at the same time, where maintaining connectivity in a decentralized manner by distributing the network control among the nodes. A large number of routing protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks are presented since last decade. Topology frequently changing, transmission power and asymmetric links are the main challenge that type of protocols is facing. Therefore, both proactive and reactive routing protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks show incapability, and sometimes prove to be inefficient under these circumstances. We have previously developed and presented a new multipath hybrid routing protocol in name of Multipath Distance Vector Zone Routing Protocol and we refer to it as MDVZRP. The protocol is implemented in the well known network simulator (ns2). In MDVZRP we assume that all the routes in the routing table are active and usable at any time, unless the node received or discovered a broken link. Therefore, no need to update the routing tables periodically to reduce the periodic update messages and hence we reduce the control traffic in the entire network. The protocol guarantees loop freedom, disjoint paths, and alternative paths in case of break the active path by none frequently maintaining topological map of a zone centered on each node. In this paper, the MDVZRP's performance is evaluated and compared with DSDV and AODV standard protocols delivering CBR traffic. Simulation results show that it gives better performance than DSDV in all situations, and better than AODV, when mobility is low. © 2009 IEEE.