Performance Enhancement of Routing Protocols Based on Virtual Backbone in Ad hoc Networks

Many routing protocols for ad hoc networks have been proposed in the last decade. Mobility and infrastructure-less represent the main issues related to mobile ad hoc network. In order to enhance Ad hoc routing protocols, a virtual structure is proposed to handle traffic control and reduce the effect of node mobility in mobile ad hoc networks. This virtual structure called backbone enables routing protocols to use only a subset of nodes in the network for route management and avoid the use of flooding technique to diffuse control traffic. In this paper, a new approach to construct and maintain the backbone is proposed. By using Opnet simulator, we show that using backbone, routing protocols can enhance their performance when the mobility and the load in the network are considered. Three reactive protocols (AODV, DSR and TORA) have been used in this simulation.