Throughput Comparison of AODV and DSR Protocols in Multi-hop Static Environments

In this paper, we present throughput analysis of two popular Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) routing protocol implementations, AODV-UU (Uppsala University) and DSR-UU. Both implementations are Linux based user space implementations developed using C language. Instead of using simulator for throughput analysis, the investigated scenario involves a stationary test-bed that consists of real wireless nodes in ad-hoc mode connected using IEEE 802.11b standard. Influence of number of wireless nodes on overall throughput, with and without predefined static routes between nodes has been investigated. Specially developed java-based configuration and management utility was used for static route selection. Disabling or enabling of predefined wireless connections is accomplished by discarding frames according to their hardware address at MAC layer. Throughput performance of both protocols during FTP data transfer over real multi-hop network of wireless nodes has been analyzed. Additionally, a delay introduced by AODV-UU and DSR-UU protocol implementations in dynamic route change situations caused by wireless link breakage has been studied.