Mobile Ad-hoc Network Routing Protocols: A Simulation and Performance Analysis Using Multimedia Traffic

Mobile ad hoc Networks (MANETs) dynamically form non-permanent network without any common administration or infrastructure. Its dynamic topology requires new set of routing protocols different from traditional wired networks. Multimedia applications such as video conferencing demands consistent throughput and end-to-end delay under varying network load. This requirement is very challenging due to restrictions such as dynamic topology, bandwidth limitation, energy constraint, and autonomy. In this paper different routing protocols of MANETs have been analyzed with performance metrics of throughput, end-to-end delay and network load by simulating multimedia (video conferencing) traffic. The simulation results show that proactive protocol OLSR outperforms reactive protocol AODV and hybrid protocol TORA due to readily available routing paths.