Using Performance, Energy Consumption, and Resilience Experimental Measures to Evaluate Routing Protocols for Ad Hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks are gaining momentum in contexts of use where the rapid deployment of dynamic networks is critical. It is well-known that these networks are threatened by a variety of accidental and malicious faults. Despite this fact, there exist few critical studies quantifying and analysing the impact of faults on networks' performance, resilience and energy consumption. This practical experience report studies the effect of eleven different types of perturbations (including malicious and accidental faults) on different versions of a well-known ad hoc routing protocol implementation, named olsrd. Experimentation also includes the assessment of the effectiveness of fault prevention (encryption) and detection (watchdog) mechanisms available for the considered protocols versions. During the analysis, emphasis is placed on the influence that context of use has on the interpretation of results. In that sense, reported experimentation is particularised to the domain of wireless mesh networks and mobile ad hoc networks.