A Simulation Study of Routing Performance in Realistic Urban Scenarios for MANETs

We study through simulation the performance of two MANET routing algorithms in a realistic urban environment. The two algorithms, AODV and AntHocNet, are representative of two different approaches and design methodologies. AODV is a a reference state-of-the-art algorithm following a purely reactive approach. AntHocNet is based on swarm intelligence and integrates proactive and reactive mechanisms. Our objective is to investigate the usefulness of the different approaches they adopt when confronted with the peculiarities of urban environments and the requirements of real-world applications. At this aim we define a detailed and realistic simulation setup. We model node mobility by limiting node movements to the streets and open spaces of the town, use a ray-tracing approach to model the propagation of radio waves, and investigate different kinds of realistic traffic patterns resulting from SMS messaging, VoIP communications, interaction between a control node and a fleet of vehicles, and existence of a fixed infrastructure mesh.