Routing in ad hoc

networks
Introduction
Ebook Reading: Chp2 MANET by Loo
Prior to Wireless networks..
In Wired Networks, routing protocols are table-
driven/proactive and can be classified into:
1. Distance vector protocols

2. Link-state routing protocols

Distance Vector Protocols
 They are concerned (mostly) about hop counts
 Disseminate hop information periodically to other
neighbours by means of broadcast
 Use mostly Bellman-Ford algorithm to find the
shortest path (= the least cost) to the destination.
 Since these algorithms are greedy on hop counts,
they may miss out high capacity, or reliable links.
 They tend to transmit the entire database to their
neighbours on a periodic basis
 Example: RIP (Routing Information Protocol), IGRP
(Interior Gateway Routing Protocol – Cisco)
Link state routing protocols
 Each node maintains an up-to-date view of the
network by periodically broadcasting the link state
information with their neighbour (may be as
unicast/multicast)
 They use shortest path algorithm, such as Dijkstra
shortest path (= least cost) algorithm.
 The link cost may be a function of one or more
parameters
 After convergence, they exchange “hello” messages
to keep the link active.
 Example: OSPF (Open Shortest Path First)
In MANET (infrastructure-less
wireless networks)
Traditional (= fixed-network) link-state or
distance vector protocols do not scale well in
a MANET. This may be due to change in the
network topology

Also frequent route update (always required

in a table-driven/proactive setting) or “keep
alive” messages cost bandwidth in a MANET;
so may a reactive/on-demand-driven setting
suit the MANET?
MANET routing protocols
Routing protocols can be classified into:
1. Table-driven/proactive (aka Global)

2. On-demand/reactive

3. Hybrid
Introduction

Routing Protocol for

MANET

Table-Driven/ Hybrid On-Demand- Clusterbased/

Proactive driven/Reactive Hierarchical

Distance Link- ZRP DSR LANMAR

Vector State AODV CEDAR
TORA
DSDV OLSR
TBRPF MANET: Mobile Ad hoc Network
FSR
(IETF working group)
STAR

7
 Proactive: the route to all the destination (or part of the
network) are determined at the startup, and maintained
using a periodic route update process (same as a wired
network), such as DSDV (Destination Sequenced
Distance Vector) and OLSR (Optimised Link State
Routing) - in next lectures
 Reactive: Routes are determined when they are required
by the source, such as AODV (Ad hoc On Demand
Distance Vector) and DSR (Dynamic Source Routing) -
in next lectures.
 Hybrid: they can be both proactive and reactive, such as
ZRP (Zone Routing Protocol) and CEDAR (Core
Extraction Distributed Ad Hoc Routing) - both not
included in CSE4PND.
 Proactive vs Reactive Routing Protocols

 Proactive Routing Protocols (DSDV, OLSR. etc )

Key: periodic exchange of control messages
+ Routes to all reachable nodes in the network available.
+ immediately providing the required routes when needed;
Minimal initial delay for application.
- Larger signalling traffic and power consumption.

 Reactive Routing Protocols (AODV, DSR, etc)

Key: attempts to discover routes (only on-demand) by flooding
+ Smaller signalling traffic and power consumption.
- A long delay for application when no route to the
destination available

Qamar A Tarar OLSR Protocol 9