Design of an ad-hoc network model for disaster recovery scenario using various routing protocols

Ad-hoc networks are infrastructure less networks and can be established in any environment without pre-existing infrastructure with ease of deployment. The nodes in the network can communicate freely while being in motion. Several routing protocols such as DSR, AODV, and DSDV etc. have been developed for communication in these networks. Ad-hoc networks are especially deployable in situations like disaster management, as we need to act very fast in adverse conditions to save the lives of the victims or minimize losses. In this paper we have analyzed the performance of these protocols for a disaster scenario. We have taken a fixed size terrain 1500x1000m2, organizing it into equal sized symmetrically placed four sub-regions of 500x300m2, each(group of rescue teams) and a few fast moving nodes (communication system on transport vehicles) moving randomly. It is observed form the simulation results that for stable networks performance of proactive protocols is better than reactive protocols in the terms of e-e delay, But with increase in the mobility reactive protocols starts outperforming the proactive protocols. Performance of DSR and AODV is comparable for low mobility and low load scenarios but AODV always performs better than DSR for high load scenarios