Evaluation of energy consumption of reactive and proactive routing protocols in MANET

Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a distributed, infrastructure-less and decentralized network. A routing protocol in MANET is used to find routes between mobile nodes to facilitate communication within the network. Numerous routing protocols have been proposed for MANET. Those routing protocols are designed to adaptively accommodate for dynamic unpredictable changes in network's topology. The mobile nodes in MANET are often powered by limited batteries and network lifetime relies heavily on the energy consumption of nodes. In consequence, the lack of a mobile node can lead to network partitioning. In this paper we analyse, evaluate and measure the energy efficiency of three prominent MANET routing protocols namely DSR, AODV and OLSR in addition to modified protocols. These routing protocols follow the reactive and the proactive routing schemes. A discussion and comparison highlighting their particular merits and drawbacks are also presented. Evaluation study and simulations are performed using NS-2 and its accompanying tools for analysis and investigation of results.