ANALYSIS OF ROUTING PROTOCOLS CHARACTERISTICS IN AD-HOC NETWORK

Abstract

Background. Wireless ad-hoc networks are becoming increasingly prevalence in remote areas, in extreme environments, even in military operations, and in scenarios where setting up infrastructure networks is not possible. Research of ad-hoc routing protocols problems allows improving the efficiency of their operation in conditions of high variability in packet loss or instability of network operation when the speed of users changes. Objective. The purpose of the paper is analysis of packet loss dependency from a network operation time, study of a user speed influence on a network efficiency, and research of network operation efficiency with different routing protocols. Methods. The method of routing protocols efficiency evaluation is the simulation of their operation in an ad-hoc network on a test data set and research of a network indicators dependency in time under different loads and changing mobility of users. Results. The conducted research demonstrated that user’s mobility at different speeds significantly affects the network operation as a whole. The instability of users' positions leads to a significant increase in route search time and packet transmission time. Among researched GPSR, DSDV, and AODV protocols, the latter proved to be the best because it has the lowest percentage of data loss and the lowest average time of message send and receive operations. Conclusions. The work is dedicated to the actual problem of developing and setting parameters of ad-hoc network. Received research results indicate the need to choose the optimal routing protocol depending on specific application conditions, such as user movement speed and network stability. The proposed solutions can be the first stage of complex processing of packets in the mobile network and justify the choice of AODV protocol as a basis for further improvement.