Performance evaluation for on-demand routing protocols based
on OPNET modules in wireless mesh networks
q
Lei Guo
a,b
, Yuhuai Peng
a
, Xingwei Wang
a,
⇑
, Dingde Jiang
a
, Yinpeng Yu
a
a
College of Information Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
article info
Article history:
Received 19 July 2010
Received in revised form 30 September
2010
Accepted 7 October 2010
Available online 30 October 2010
abstract
In wireless networks, users expect to get access to the network securely and seamlessly to
share the data flow of access points anytime and anywhere. However, either point-to-point
or point-to-multipoint methods in traditional wireless networks make the network band-
width decrease rapidly, which cannot meet the requirements of users. Recently, a new
wireless broadband access network, wireless mesh networks (WMNs), has emerged. As
one of the key technologies in WMNs, wireless routing protocols plays an important role
in performance optimization of WMNs. Therefore, in this paper, we address the on-demand
routing protocols by focusing on dynamic source routing (DSR) protocol and ad hoc on-
demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol in WMNs. Then, we use the OPNET mod-
ules to establish the simulation models of DSR and AODV protocols in WMNs. Simulation
and results show that, DSR protocol that is based on the dynamic source routing is not suit-
able for wireless transmission, while AODV routing protocol that is based on the purpose-
driven routing is suitable for wireless transmission with rapid change of network topology.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of wireless communication and wireless network technology, wireless mesh network
(WMNs) has emerged. As a new wireless access network, the kernel idea of WMNs is to allow each node of the network
to send and receive signals, so that, the problems of traditional wireless networks, such as poor robustness and low scala-
bility, can be well solved.
WMNs is the multi-hop wireless network which mainly consists of two types of nodes, mesh routers and mesh clients,
with self-healing and self-configuring [1–3], and it has the features of high transmission rate, wide coverage and low cost of
networking, etc. In general, mesh routers are stationary and have the functions of routing and data forwarding. Some mesh
routers also have more powerful functions of gateway and bridging through which other networks, such as cellular and sen-
sor networks can be connected. Mesh clients are both the users and the service providers, and they can be stationary or mo-
bile and have the functions of routing and data forwarding without the functions of gateway and bridging. The terminal
nodes can get access to the backbone network via the adjacent terminal nodes or routers through multi-hop communication.
In this way, the capability of network coverage can be significantly increased.
Currently, there are lots of researches about WMNs. For example, the resource estimating of media access control (MAC)
layer is considered to solve the problems of access capability and hidden terminal. In order to meet the features of time-
variation and un-centric-control in wireless networks, more routing protocols are proposed, such as DSR [4] and AODV
0045-7906/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compeleceng.2010.10.002
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Reviews processed and proposed for publication by Editor-in-Chief Dr. M. Malek.
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Corresponding author. Address: Northeastern University, P.O. Box 365, Shenyang 110819, China. Tel./fax: +86 24 83687758.
E-mail address: l.guo@mail.neu.edu.cn (X. Wang).
Computers and Electrical Engineering 37 (2011) 106–114
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Computers and Electrical Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compeleceng