LOADng: Towards AODV Version 2

The Ad hoc On-demand Distance-Vector routing protocol (AODV) was published in 2003 by the IETF, as experimental RFC 3561. This routing protocol was one of four routing protocols, developed by the IETF for use in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) -- with the other being DSR, TBRPF and OLSR. As operational experiences with these protocols accumulated, the IETF set forth on standardization of OLSRv2, a successor to OLSR, and DYMO -- with DYMO being the intended successor to DSR and AODV. Alas, while there was traction for and standardization of OLSRv2, interest in, development, standardization, and use of DYMO in MANETs slowly withered. AODV did, however, attract interest for routing in Low-power Lossy Networks (LLNs) due to its limited state requirements. Since 2005, several proposals for simplifying and adapting AODV specifically for LLNs emerged, in 2011 and 2012 with the use of one such adaptation of AODV in the G3-PLC standard for power line communications in smart grids, and with efforts within the IETF emerging towards a single LOADng specification, as next version of AODV. This paper presents this development -- from AODV, as specified in RFC3561 -- to LOADng. While the basic operation remains unchanged, LOADng presents simplifications, and additional features and flexibilities are introduced. This paper studies the impact of these changes "from AODV to LOADng", and observes that LOADng unites simplification, flexibility and performance improvements.