Performance comparison of two location based routing protocols for ad hoc networks

In recent years, many location based routing protocols have been developed for ad hoc networks. This paper presents the results of a detailed performance evaluation on two of these protocols: Location-Aided Routing (LAR) and Distance Routing Effect Algorithm for Mobility (DREAM). We compare the performance of these two protocols with the Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol and a minimum standard (i.e., a protocol that floods all data packets). We used NS-2 to simulate 50 nodes moving according to the random waypoint model. Our main goal for the performance investigation was to stress the protocols evaluated with high data load during both low and high speeds. Our performance investigation produced the following conclusions. First, the added protocol complexity of DREAM does not appear to provide benefits over a flooding protocol. Second, promiscuous mode operation improves the performance of DSR significantly. Third, adding location information to DSR (i.e., similar to LAR) increases both the network load and the data packet delivery ratio; our results conclude that the increase in performance is worth the increase in cost. Lastly, our implementation of DREAM provides a simple location service that could be used with other ad hoc network routing protocols.