Simulation-Based Comparative Study of On Demand Routing Protocols for MANET

If the cable replacement feature of WLANs (Wireless LAN) is the core factor of its popularity, so is the non-existence of any prior infrastructure for MANET (Mobile Ad-hoc Network). The wireless links in an Ad-hoc network are highly error prone and can go down frequently because of node mobility, interference, channel fading, and the lack of infrastructure. Several routing protocols have been proposed for a typical MANET. We have selected two routing protocols (DSR & TORA) to analyze their relative performance as both of them fall in the category of on demand MANET routing protocols. We use quantitative performance metrics for our analysis; comparing relative results in simulation section. Our simulation results indicate that DSR shows overall better performance as it has less overhead control packets thus yielding more throughput. The performance also depends upon the size of the network. Furthermore, we use OPNET MANET Tool to simulate our hypothetical MANET.