Design, implementation and simulation of a uni cast routing protocol in mobile adhoc networks (MANETS)

Abstract

Mobility-Adaptive On demand Routing Protocol (MAORP) is intended for use by mobile nodes in an ad hoc network. It offers quick adaptation to dynamic link conditions, low processing and memory overhead, low network utilization, and determines unicast routes to destinations within the ad hoc network. Current approaches to multi-path routing make use of pre-computed routes determined during route discovery. These solutions, however, may not work under conditions of high mobility since the alternate paths are not actively maintained. Hence, precisely when needed, the routes are often broken. In this protocol, a solution is presented for the stale and the broken links. The protocol uses multi-path routing and keeps the list of available routes at the source as well as the destination. Update packets are broadcast along the network every few seconds (pre-computed based on heuristics). These packets measure the sum of signal strengths along all the paths, summed over individual links. The current recorded paths by the source or the destination may then be dynamically changed according to the cumulative signal strength obtained along the complete paths. The path with the highest cumulative signal strength is then used for data transmission. The performance of the network was measured using Packet Delivery Ratio as the metric. MAORP was found to perform better than DSDV and comparable to AODV, under conditions of high-mobility, with 70 nodes observed as the bench mark beyond which a drastic change in the characteristics was observed.