The Performance Evaluation of AODV & DSR (On-Demand- Driven) Routing Protocols using QualNet 5.0 Simulator

The MANETs are the collection of wireless nodes that can dynamically form a network anytime and anywhere to exchange information without using any pre-existing infrastructure. The highly dynamic nature of MANET coupled with limited bandwidth and battery power imposes severe restrictions on routing protocols especially on achieving the routing stability. Due to all these constraints, designing of a routing protocol is still a challenging task for researchers. In this paper an attempt has been made to evaluate and compare the performance of two most commonly used on-demand-driven routing protocols named as AODV & DSR. The performance of both these routing protocols has been simulated using QualNet 5.0 Simulator. The results show that neither of the protocol is better in all situations. For some parameters one outperforms the other and vice-versa as reported in the paper. The conclusions drawn in the paper can be useful in selecting the better routing protocol depending upon various parameters under consideration.