An Assessment of Recent Advances in AODV Routing Protocol Path Optimization Algorithms for Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are decentralized wireless ad hoc networks comprising of self-organizing, self-configuring mobile nodes with constantly varying topology that serves as both the host as well as router. In order to communicate in such a mobile and diverse environment, the network makes use of routing protocols, so as to interconnect nodes which are dynamic and placed arbitrarily. The most predominantly used routing protocol is the Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol. However, the constantly varying topology due to node mobility makes routing in MANET a hectic task. Link breakages and node failure in the network can lead to loss of network resources, which makes the optimal path selection between sender and receiver node quite necessary for reducing bandwidth usage, energy consumption and increasing the Quality of Service (QoS). Taking into consideration the routing issues in AODV, five recent AODV extension algorithms have been reviewed in this manuscript for finding their performances and short comings. The algorithms include an Enhanced-Ant-AODV, AODV based on TOPSIS and Fuzzy algorithm, Fungi network-based routing, Dynamic Power AODV (DP-AODV), and Dragon fly algorithm. In this review, some of the network performance parameters like the throughput, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), end-to-end delay, and routing overhead of each algorithm are analyzed and compared.