An investigation of Routing Protocols in Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) under certain Parameters

Abstract: Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are bringing revolutionary change in the field of wireless networking. It is a trustworthy technology in applications like broadband home networking, network management and latest transportation systems. WMNs consist of mesh routers, mesh clients and gateways. It is a special kind of wireless Ad-hoc networks. One of the issues in WMNs is resource management which includes routing and for routing there are particular routing protocols that gives better performance when checked with certain parameters. Parameters in WMNs include delay, throughput, network load etc. There are two types of routing protocols i.e. reactive protocols and proactive protocols. Three routing protocols AODV, DSR and OLSR have been tested in WMNs under certain parameters which are delay, throughput and network load. The testing of these protocols will be performed in the Optimized Network Evaluation Tool (OPNET) Modeler 14.5. The obtained results from OPNET will be displayed in this thesis in the form of graphs. This thesis will help in validating which routing protocol will give the best performance under the assumed conditions. Moreover this thesis report will help in doing more research in future in this area and help in generating new ideas in this research area that will enhance and bring new features in WMNs.