Energy efficient unicast routing protocols over 802.11b

The paper compares the performance of the AODV, DSR, OESR classic routing protocols for ad hoc networks, when an IEEE 802.11b MAC protocol is used. The investigation, performed by means of simulations, evaluates the energy efficiency of these protocols and the effect of the 802.11b rate adaptation capability on the performance. The paper evaluates the effectiveness of a distributed power control (DPC) scheme (P. Bergamo et al., 2002) applied to the classic AODV, DSR and OESR routing algorithms. The DPC scheme, acting both at MAC and network layers, has the aim to reduce the overall power consumption of the network. In particular, DPC evaluates, hop-by-hop, the suitable transmit power level and then selects, end-to-end, for any destination, the path which minimizes the total transmit power required. A final comparison between classic and DPC routing protocols is also reported