Performance Evaluation of Ns2 and Omnet++ Simulators for Aodv Protocol in Manet

In order to observe the behaviour of a protocol in various scenarios, network simulators are used. There are few network simulators available for usage but which one will provide optimum performance and suitability of network simulator for a particular scenario is always an important decision. In this paper we analyse behaviour of two different network simulators for a same MANET routing protocol. The MANET routing protocol that we have selected is popular Ad-hoc on demand Distance Vector (AODV). In this paper, we analyse the performance of routing protocol by using NS2 simulator and then the same on INET, which is a simulation framework from OMNeT++. The main purpose behind this work is to understand what role simulator plays when we try to simulate a particular protocol on desired Simulator. This study of difference in performance of simulator shows how the underlying architecture of a simulator affects the performance of the simulator. We considered these simulators for comparison purpose due to the amount of their usage in the industry as well as in education and research area. NS2 is one of the oldest and most preferred simulators by researchers and industry people while usage of OMNeT++ is also increasing with the time.