Evaluation of Parameters Affecting the Performance of Routing Protocols in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) with a Focus on Energy Efficiency

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation and analysis of two classes of routing protocols optimized for MANETs: reactive (DSR, AODV), and proactive (DSDV, OLSR). These protocols are particularly designed for the dynamic nature of MANETs where nodes actively move, connections between nodes are regularly broken, and paths need to be reconstructed. MANETs are used in a wide range of applications including rescue operations, military areas, and oceanography. However, the nodes have limited batteries, and typically, it is not applicable or cost effective to replace the batteries of nodes. Other than the dynamic nature of these networks, which leads to more processing and rerouting requirements, the movements also speed up the batteries’ depletions. Thus, the energy efficiency of routing protocols significantly affects the performance of these networks. In this research, we study the two classes of routing protocols in MANETs, investigate the effect of several parameters on the network performance through excessive simulations, and analyze how the variations of these parameters affect the performance. We evaluate the network performance in terms of energy consumption, routing overhead and Quality of Service metrics including throughput and delay.