AODV with Dynamic Power Enhancement: Performance Evaluation in MANETs

Abstract

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) pose challenges in terms of power control, due to their fixed transmission power, the mobility of nodes and a constantly changing topology. High levels of power are needed in wireless networks, particularly for routing. In order to address this problem, power aware routing protocols have been proposed, with the aim of maximising the lifetime of the network. This paper presents an enhancement to the Ad Hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) protocol, by reducing transmission power, when a large number of other radios are within range. This protocol, called DP-AODV (Dynamic Power AODV) combines the hello packet mechanism and the power control mechanism in order to reduce interference between nodes and increase the throughput in the network, thus reducing the overall power consumption. A performance evaluation of this enhanced protocol is carried out in comparison with three standard routing protocols, Ad Hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV), Ad Hoc On Demand Multipath Distance Vector (AOMDV) and Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), using network simulator 2 (NS2). Keywords-MANET; Dynamic Power; Density; Mobility; Interference.