Simulation Study and Implementation on Routing Protocols in MANET

Ad-hoc networks are characterized by a lack of infrastructure, and by a random and quickly changing network topology; thus the need for a robust dynamic routing protocol that can accommodate such an environment. Consequently, many routing algorithms have come in to existence to satisfy the needs of communications in such networks. This article presents a simulation study and comparison the performance between two categories of routing protocols, table-driven (Proactive) and on-demand (Reactive) routing protocols, this two categories were illustrated by using two different examples of routing protocols, first example is DSDV (Destination Sequenced Distance-Vector) from the Proactive family and the second example is AODV (Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector) and DSR (Dynamic Source Routing Protocol) from the Reactive family. Both protocols were simulated by using NS-2 (network simulator-2) package. Both routing protocols were compared in terms of average throughput (packets delivery ratio) while varying data rate, TCP types ,maximum packets in queue and number of packet drop while varying data rate by using the Trace file. For the same queue length DSDV performs better than AODV. AODV is preferred due to its more efficient use of bandwidth.