Ad Hoc Networks Routing Protocols and Mobility

An ad hoc network is a temporary infrastructureless network, formed dynamically by mobile devices without turning to any existing centralized administration. To send packets to remote nodes, a node uses other intermediate nodes as relays, and ask them to forward its packets. For this purpose, a distributed routing protocol is required. Because the devices used are mobile, the network topology is unpredictable, and it may change at any time. These topology changes along with other intrinsic features related to mobile devices, such as the energy resource limitation, make ad hoc networks challenging to implement efficient routing protocols. In this paper, we drive a GloMoSim based simulation study, to investigate the mobility effects on the performance of several mobile ad hoc routing protocols.