OLSR performance measurement in a military mobile ad hoc network

Wireless ad hoc networks are autonomous, self-configurating and adaptive. Thus, such networks are excellent candidates for military tactical networks, where their ability to be operational rapidly and without any centralized entity is essential. As radio coverage is usually limited, multihop routing is often needed; this is achieved by an ad hoc routing protocol supporting nodes mobility. In this paper, we present performance measurements of the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) routing protocol, having the status of IETF RFC. The measurements are performed at CELAR site on a platform representative of military scenarios in urban areas. This platform consists of ten routers, eight PDAs and laptops using a IEEE 802.11b radio interface and implementing OLSR v7. Some nodes are mobile within vehicles. The emphasis of the measurements is on the performance of the network (route repair, network convergence speed, user traffic performance) in presence of this mobility.