Simulation‐Based Comparative Study of Routing Protocols for Wireless Ad-­Hoc Network

Abstract: Wireless ad-hoc networks have recently gained significant research attention due to their vast potential of applications in numerous fields. Multihop routing is a significantly important aspect which determines, to a large extend, the overall performance of the network. A number of routing protocols have been proposed for routing in wireless ad-hoc networks with focus on optimizing different aspects of the network routing. This report focuses on studying two popular protocols for wireless networks: Ad-hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Optimized Link-State Routing (OLSR). The two protocols belong to different classes of routing categorization. AODV is a popular on-demand (reactive) routing protocol whereas the OLSR is a popular link-state based proactive routing protocol. The technical aspects of the two protocols shall be studied while highlighting the differences between the two and simulation based performance comparison of the two protocols shall be carried out under varying traffic and network conditions using the Network Simulator.