TCP performance evaluation under MANET routing protocols in disaster recovery scenario

Abstract

In military operation and disaster recovery scenarios, Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) has emerged as a key enabler in facilitating effective operation. The important traits that resulted in widening popularity of MANET are: quick deployability and reconfigurability on the fly. In a disaster scenario, where probably the preexisting communication infrastructures might have been destroyed, MANET can come into play in providing Internet connectivity. As nodes in a MANET move around, a routing algorithm for packet exchange between a pair of nodes plays significantly an important role in throughput and end-to-end delay performance (different routing protocols in a given MANET configuration will yield different network performance). Several factors can affect the behavior of routing protocols, including nodes mobility. Different routing protocols will behave differently across different mobility models. The objective of this paper is to study and evaluate the performance of TCP traffic under three MANET routing protocols (Dynamic Source Routing, Ad Hoc On-Demand Multipath Distance Vector and Zone Routing Protocol) in disaster recovery scenario. To reflect node mobility in a disaster recovery scenario realistically, in our simulation, we have considered disaster area mobility model. The end goal of this paper is to determine which routing protocol would be the most suitable to be used under the disaster area mobility model based on the network performance evaluation.