R-AODV: Rate aware routing protocol for WiFi mesh networks

Multi-rate mechanism is adopted widely in wireless communication systems, such as WiFi mesh networks. Most of routing protocols which are employed in Ad Hoc networks use minimum hop-count as a performance metric to select the routing path, such as AODV, DSR, etc. These routing protocols are not effective in WiFi mesh networks. Rate aware routing protocol based on AODV (R-AODV) uses minimum network layer transmission time as a performance metric. The calculation method of network layer transmission time is given in this paper. Nodes will select higher data rate link using R-AODV. The simulation result indicates that R-AODV can improve the network throughput and decrease network delay.