Routing Protocols and Their Performance in Mobile Ad hoc Networks: A Quality of Service Optimization Perspective

Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is the collection of self-configured mobile nodes withoutthe need for any fixed infrastructure. Since mobile nodes participating in MANET can have mobility and topologies change dynamically, it is important to have efficient routing protocols for MANET. It has support for proactive and reactive routing protocols that are widely used. However, there is need for optimization of routing protocols in order to improve Quality of Service (QoS). Therefore, it is indispensable to understand existing routing protocols and their performance prior to optimization of them with different strategies. In this paper we explore different routing protocols with NS-3 simulation study and evaluate their performance in terms of different metrics like Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), throughput, end to end delay, jitter and packet dropping. Our empirical study has revealed that the protocols do have different performance levels. This paper also provides valuable insights and further routing optimization required towards improving QoS.