Performance Evaluation of AODV, FSR, and ZRP Routing Protocols in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks using Qualnet

Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANET) is a collection of wireless mobile nodes that dynamically form a network temporarily without any support of central administration. Mobile means moving and Ad Hoc means temporary without any fixed infrastructure. Mobile Ad-hoc networks are the collection of mobile nodes connected by a wireless link, where each node acts as a router. Ad-hoc networks are characterized by a lack of infrastructure, and by a random and quickly changing network topology thus the need for a robust dynamic routing protocol that can accommodate such an environment. In addition to this, routing protocols face many challenges like short battery backup, limited processing capability. Every node in MANET moves arbitrarily making the multi-hop network topology to change randomly at unpredictable times. Routing is a critical task in MANET where the nodes are mobile. Dynamic and reliable routing protocols are required in the ad-hoc wireless networks, as they have no infrastructure and their network topology changes. There are various protocols for handling the routing problem in the ad-hoc wireless network environment. There are several familiar routing protocols like AODV, FSR, ZRP, etc…which have been proposed for providing communication among all the nodes in the network. In this paper we have analyzed the performance of proactive, reactive and hybrid protocols using AODV, FSR and ZRP based on parameters like Throughput, End-to-End delay, Average jitter ,Total message received etc. by using the Qualnet 6.1 simulator.