Examining Possible Supplementary Nature of Routing Protocols in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs): A Discussion

摘要

Routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) is critical. As such, there are many routing protocols that have been proposed over the years. Each routing protocol has weaknesses and strengths. Currently, much of research on routing protocols in MANETs concentrates on literature reviews, performance comparison and proposition of new protocols. However, there has been very little or no attempt to examine the possibility of combining several routing protocols for effective routing in MANET. By highlighting the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of eight routing protocols selected from the Flat Routing, Hierarchical/hybrid Routing, and Geographical Position Assisted Routing protocols, this article attempts to establish whether different routing protocols in MANETs can be combined for effective routing. A hypothetical situation that uses a combined Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP) and Location-Aided Routing (LAR) for cluster networking is used for the sake of the proposition. This paper refers to such protocol as ZRP-LAR driven. According to the findings from the literature review on MANETs routing protocols, this study establishes that it is possible to combine more than one routing protocols in MANETs to achieve effectiveness in packets transmission.