Chapter - 4

Routing Protocols for Wireless and

Mobile Networks

1
 Outline
• Routing protocols for wireless and mobile network
• Performance metrics
• Classification of Routing Protocols
• Reactive Routing Protocols
• Proactive Routing Protocols
• Hybrid routing protocols
• DSR, AODV protocol descriptions
• Comparison of Proactive and Reactive Routing Protocols

2
 Routing Protocols for Wireless and
Mobile Networks
• An ample of routing protocols have been developed for
wireless and mobile networks, wireless sensor
networks...
• These protocols must deal with the typical limitations of
wireless and mobility characteristics, which include:
– High power consumption,
– Network scalability
– Low bandwidth
– High error rates, and
– Arbitrary movements of nodes,

Routing is the most fundamental research issue in

wireless and mobile networks. 3
 Performance metrics of routing protocols
 The performance of routing protocols can be
analyzed by making use of qualitative and
quantitative metrics.

 Some of the important qualitative metrics of routing

protocols in MANETs are:
– Distributed operation,
– Quality of service
– Loop-freedom
– Demand-based operation
– Proactive operation
– Security
– Route stability
– Scalability
4
 Performance metrics…
• Some of quantitative metrics that can be used
to assess the performance of routing protocol
are:
– End-to-end delay
– Throughput
– Overhead
– Packet delivery ratio
– Percentage of Out-of-Order Delivery
– Efficiency and
– Mobility.

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Classification of Routing Protocols
 The basic function of routing protocols in
wireless and mobile networks are:
• To find or acquire routes information and
• Maintain this information by mobile nodes.

 Based on the outlined function, routing protocols

are classified as:
• Proactive
• Reactive
• Hybrid

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 Proactive Routing Protocols

• These protocols are known as table-driven

protocols.

• Routes information is generally kept in the

routing tables.
• and is periodically updated as the network
topology changes.

• Based on Link state and distance vector

algorithms

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 Proactive routing protocols: drawbacks

• Proactive routing protocols are not suitable for

larger networks – leads to control overhead.
• Frequent updating of routing table leads to
consumption of more bandwidth.
• The overhead to maintain up-to-date network
topology information is high.
• Energy consumption is high.
• Examples of proactive routing protocols;
DSDV,WRP, OLSR, FSR,STAR,…
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 Reactive Routing Protocols
• Sometimes they are called source-initiated on-
demand routing protocols.
• In a reactive routing protocol, routing paths are
searched only when needed.
• Route discovery and route maintenance are the
basic operations.
• Compared to proactive routing protocols, less
control overhead is an advantage of the reactive
routing protocols.
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 Reactive Routing Protocols: drawback

• However, when using reactive routing protocols,

source nodes may suffer from long delays for
route searching before they forward data
packets.

• Examples of Reactive routing protocols include

AODV, DSR, TORA,LMR,…

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 Hybrid Routing protocols

• There is a trade-off between proactive and

reactive protocols.
– Proactive protocols have large overhead and less
latency while
– Reactive protocols have less overhead and more
latency.

• Therefore a Hybrid protocol is devised to overcome

the shortcomings of both proactive and reactive
routing protocols.

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 Hybrid Routing protocols…
• Hybrid routing protocol is combination of both
proactive and reactive routing protocol.
• It uses:
– the route discovery mechanism of reactive protocol and
– the table maintenance mechanism of proactive protocol
– so as to avoid latency and overhead problems in the
network.

• Hybrid protocol is suitable for large networks with

large numbers of nodes.
E.g, ZRP

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 Routing protocols…
• Sensor specific protocols
– Flat
• Sensor Protocols for Information via Negotiation (SPIN)
• Directed Diffusion
– Hierarchical
• Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH)
– Location-based
• Geocast
• Minimum Energy Communication Network (MECN)

• MANET routing protocols adapted for sensor

networks
– Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV)
– Dynamic MANET On-demand (DYMO)
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 Routing protocols…
• Proactive
– DSDV: Destination Sequenced Distance Vector
– WRP: Wireless Routing Protocol
– CGSR: Cluster Switch Gateway Routing
• Reactive
– ABR: Associability Based Routing
– DSR: Dynamic Source Routing
– TORA: Temporally Ordered Routing Algorithm
– AODV: Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing
– DYMO: Dynamic MANET On-demand – DYMO-low
– RDMAR: Relative Distance Microdiversity Routing
– SSR: Signal Stability Routing
– LAR: Location-Aided Routing
– PAR: Power-Aware Routing
• Hybrid
– ZRP: Zone Routing Protocol

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 Flooding of Control Packets

• Many protocols perform flooding of

control packets, instead of data packets

• The control packets are used to discover

routes

• Discovered routes are subsequently used

to send data packet(s)
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Creating Link between Mobile devices

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Node Links maintained over Internet

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Wireless and mobile network

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 Dynamic Source Routing Protocol (DSR)
• Is a source-initiated on-demand, reactive routing
protocol designed for wireless and mobile networks.
• The protocol is composed of two main operations;
“Route Discovery” and “Route Maintenance ”.

 Route discovery
• Source initiates route discovery by broadcasting a
route request(RREQ) packet.
• RREQ packet includes:
– The address of the destination
– The source node’s address
– A unique identification number
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 DSR…

• Mobile nodes have routes in cache

memory
• How it works:
– When node S has to send a packet to node D, but
doesn’t know the route, it initiates a Route
Discovery procedure (RREQ)
– RREQ packets propagate until destination or another
node that knows the route to D
– After that node S stores the route and sends packets

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 DSR - Route Discovery
Y

Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

Node that receives a RREQ to D from S

Represents that connected nodes are within each
other’s transmission range21
 DSR - Route Discovery
Y
Broadcast transmission
[S] Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

RREQ transmission
[X,Y] Route to D stored into a RREQ packet
Represents a node that receives
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packet P for
the first time
 DSR - Route Discovery
Y

Z
S [S,E]
E
F
B
C M L
J
A [S,C] G
H D
K
I N

H gets two RREQ packets. Possible collision.

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 DSR - Route Discovery
Y

Z
S E
F [S,E,F]
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
[S,C,G] K
I N

Node C receives a RREQ from G and H, but doesn’t forward them

because it has already done once

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 DSR - Route Discovery
Y

Z
S E
F [S,E,F,J]
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I [S,C,G,K] N

J and K nodes forward RREQ to node D

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 DSR - Route Discovery
Y

Z
S E
[S,E,F,J,M]
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

Node D doesn’t forward RREQ because it is the destination

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 Route Reply in DSR
• When D gets the first RREQ, it replies with a RREP
– It follows the route stored in RREQ from S to D
backwards
– It works for bidirectional links
Y

S RREP [S,E,F,J,D] Z
E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

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 Route Reply in DSR…

• When S gets RREP, it stores the route in the cache

memory

• When node S sends a data packet to D, the

entire route is included in the packet header
– hence the name source routing

• Intermediate nodes use the source route

included in a packet to determine to whom a
packet should be forwarded

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 DSR – Data transmission

DATA [S,E,F,J,D] Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

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 DSR Optimization: Route Caching
• Each node caches a new route it learns by any
means
Examples
• When node S finds route [S,E,F,J,D] to node D, node S
also learns route [S,E,F] to node F
• When node K receives Route Request [S,C,G] destined
for node, node K learns route [K,G,C,S] to node S
• When node F forwards Route Reply RREP [S,E,F,J,D],
node F learns route [F,J,D] to node D
• When node E forwards Data [S,E,F,J,D] it learns route
[E,F,J,D] to node D
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 Use of Route Caching

• When node S learns that a route to node D is broken, it uses

another route from its local cache, if such a route to D exists in
its cache.

• Otherwise, node S initiates route discovery by sending a route

request

• Node X on receiving a Route Request for some node D can send

a Route Reply if node X knows a route to node D

• Use of route cache

– can speed up route discovery
– can reduce propagation of route requests

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 Use of Route Caching

[S,E,F,J,D]
[E,F,J,D]
S E [F,J,D],[F,E,S]
F
B [J,F,E,S]
C M L
J
A [C,S] G
H D
[G,C,S] K
I N

[P,Q,R] Represents cached route at a node

(DSR maintains the cached routes in a tree format)
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 Use of Route Caching:
Can Speed up Route Discovery
[S,E,F,J,D]
[E,F,J,D]
S E [F,J,D],[F,E,S]
F
B [J,F,E,S]
C [G,C,S] M L
J
A [C,S] G
H D
[K,G,C,S] K
I RREP N
RREQ
Z
When node Z sends a route request
for node C, node K sends back a route
reply [Z,K,G,C] to node Z using a locally
cached route
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 Use of Route Caching:
Can Reduce Propagation of Route Requests

[S,E,F,J,D] Y
[E,F,J,D]
S E [F,J,D],[F,E,S]
F
B [J,F,E,S]
C [G,C,S] M L
J
A [C,S] G
H D
[K,G,C,S] K
I RREP N
RREQ
Z

Assume that there is no link between D and Z.

Route Reply (RREP) from node K limits flooding of RREQ.
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 Route Caching: drawbacks

• Stale caches can adversely affect performance

• With passage of time and node mobility, cached

routes may become invalid

• A sender host may try several stale routes

(obtained from local cache, or replied from
cache by other nodes), before finding a good
route

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 Route Error (RERR)
Y

RERR [J-D] Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

J sends a route error to S along route J-F-E-S when its attempt to forward the
data packet S (with route SEFJD) on J-D fails

Nodes hearing RERR update their route cache to remove link J-D
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 Dynamic Source Routing: Advantages

• Routes maintained only between nodes who

need to communicate
– reduces overhead of route maintenance

• Route caching can further reduce route

discovery overhead

• A single route discovery may yield many

routes to the destination,
• due to intermediate nodes replying from local caches
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 Dynamic Source Routing: Disadvantages
• Routes get old:
– Efficiency can decrease
– Cache routes may return invalid routes
– Nodes may try different invalid routes before trigger a new route
discovery procedure

• Packet length grow with the number of hops of a route

• One RREQ can reach all nodes of a network
• Potential collisions on RREQ frames sent by neighbor nodes
– Solution: random backoff

• RREP storm if many neighbor nodes know routes

– Solution: if a node wants to send a RREP but it listens another, it cancels
its own RREP transmission
• One intermediate node may send a RREP with and invalid (old) route

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 Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector
(AODV) Routing
• Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing
– Charles Perkins 1999

• Reactive routing - A node only maintains those routes

that really needs
• Tries to improve DSR:
– It maintains routing tables in order that packets should not
contain destination route (avoids source routing)
– Routes have identification number to detect old ones
– Routes have live time and expire
– Each node has a list of neighbors that use it to relay data
– When a route expires it is notified to neighbors (RERR)
– It uses Hello packets to detect neighbor connectivity
• When Hello packets do not arrive: connectivity failure

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 AODV…

• Reactive or on Demand
• Descendant of DSDV
• Uses bi-directional links
• Route discovery cycle used for route finding
• Maintenance of active routes
• Sequence numbers used for
– as route freshness criteria
• Provides unicast and multicast communication

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 AODV routing…
 It takes most of the advantageous concepts from
DSR and DSDV algorithms.
 On-demand route discovery and route
maintenance from DSR.
 Hop-by-hop routing and usage of node sequence
numbers from DSDV makes it suitable for wireless
and mobile networks.
 AODV utilizes control packets such as:
– Route Request (RREQ),
– Route Reply (RREP), and
– Route Error (RERR)
to manage routes between communicating nodes.
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 AODV…
• A RREQ message includes:
– Source-address
– Source-sequence no. to maintain freshness
information about the route to the source.
– Destination-address
– Destination-sequence no. to specifies how fresh a
route to the destination must be before it is
accepted by the source.
– Node-count.

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 AODV route discovery
 When a node wishes to send a packet to some
destination –
❍ It checks its routing table to determine if it has a
current route to the destination
• If Yes, forwards the packet to next hop node
• If No, it initiates a route discovery process

❒ Route discovery process begins with the creation of a

Route Request (RREQ) packet -> source node creates
it

❒ The packet contains – source node’s IP address,

source node’s current sequence number, destination
IP address, destination sequence number

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 AODV route discovery…
 Once an intermediate node receives a RREQ, the node sets
up a reverse route entry for the source node in its routing
table
❍ Reverse route entry consists of <Source IP address,
Source seq. number, number of hops to source node, IP
address of node from which RREQ was received>
❍ Using the reverse route a node can send a RREP (Route
Reply packet) to the source
• Reverse route entry also contains – life time field
❒ RREQ reaches destination -> In order to respond to RREQ a
node should have in its routing table:
1. Unexpired entry for the destination
2. Seq. number of destination at least as great as in
RREQ (for freshness of route)
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 AODV route discovery…
 RREQ reaches destination (contd.)
❍ If both conditions are met & the IP address of the
destination matches with that in RREQ 
the node responds to RREQ by sending a RREP back
using unicasting and not flooding to the source using
reverse path
❍ If conditions are not satisfied, then node
increments the hop count in RREQ and broadcasts to
its neighbors
❒ Ultimately the RREQ will make to the destination

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Route Requests in AODV- Example
Y

Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

46
Route Requests in AODV
Y
Broadcast transmission
Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

Represents transmission of RREQ

47
Route Requests in AODV
Y

Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

Represents links on Reverse Path (routing tables)

48
Reverse Path Setup in AODV
Y

Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

Node C receives RREQ from G and H, but does not forward

it again, because node C has already forwarded RREQ once

49
Reverse Path Setup in AODV
Y

Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

50
Reverse Path Setup in AODV
Y

Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

Node D does not forward RREQ, because node D

is the intended target of the RREQ

51
 Route Reply in AODV
Y

Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

Represents links on path taken by RREP

52
 Data Delivery in AODV
Y
DATA
Z
S E
F
B
C M L
J
A G
H D
K
I N

Routing table entries used to forward data packet

Route is not included in packet header
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 AODV – route discovery example (more)
B

S A
C D

1. Node S needs a route to D

54
 AODV – route discovery example
B

S A
C D

1. Node S needs a route to D

2. Creates a Route Request (RREQ)
 Enters D’s IP addr, seq #, S’s IP addr, hopcount (=0)

55
 AODV – route discovery example
B
RREQ
S A
C D

1. Node S needs a route to D

2. Creates a Route Request (RREQ)
 Enters D’s IP addr, seq #, S’s IP addr, seq #, hopcount
(=0)
3. Node S broadcasts RREQ to neighbors

56
 AODV – route discovery example
B
RREQ
S A
C D

4. Node A receives RREQ

 Makes a reverse route entry for S
dest=S, nexthop=S, hopcount=1
 It has no routes to D, so it rebroadcasts RREQ

57
 AODV – route discovery example
B
RREQ

S A
C D

4. Node A receives RREQ

 Makes a reverse route entry for S
dest=S, nexthop=S, hopcount=1
 It has no routes to D, so it rebroadcasts RREQ

58
 AODV – route discovery example
B
RREQ

S A
C D

5. Node C receives RREQ

 Makes a reverse route entry for S
dest=S, nexthop=A, hopcount=2,
 It has a route to D, and the seq# for route to D is >= D’s
seq# in RREQ

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 Route Reply in AODV
• An intermediate node (not the destination) may
also send a Route Reply (RREP) provided that it
knows a more recent path than the one previously
known to sender S

• To determine whether the path known to an

intermediate node is more recent, destination
sequence numbers are used

• The likelihood that an intermediate node will send

a Route Reply when using AODV not as high as DSR
– A new Route Request by node S for a destination is
assigned a higher destination sequence number.
– An intermediate node which knows a route, but with a
smaller sequence number, cannot send Route Reply
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 AODV – route reply
B
RREQ

S A
C D

5. Node C receives RREQ

 C creates a Route Reply (RREP)
Enters D’s IP addr, seq#, S’s IP addr, hopcount to D(=1)
 Unicasts RREP to A

61
 AODV – route reply
B

RREP
S A
C D

5. Node C receives RREQ

 C creates a Route Reply (RREP)
Enters D’s IP addr, seq#, S’s IP addr, hopcount to D(=1)
 Unicasts RREP to A

62
 AODV – forward path setup
B
RREP
RREP
S A
C D

6. Node A receives RREP

 Makes a forward route entry to D
dest=D, nexthop=C, hopcount=2
 Unicasts RREP to S

63
 AODV – forward path setup
 When a node determines that it has a current route to
respond to RREQ i.e. has a path to destination – It
creates RREP (Route Reply)
❒ RREP contains <IP address of source and destination>
❍ If RREP is being sent by destination
• The RREP will also contain the <current sqn # of
destination, hop-count=0, life-time>
❍ If RREP is sent by an intermediate node
• RREP will contain its record of the <destination sequence
number, hop-count=its distance to destination, its value of
the life-time>

64
 AODV – forward path setup
 When an intermediate node receives the RREP, it sets
up a forward path entry to the destination in its route
table
❍ Forward path entry contains
<IP Address of destination, IP address of node from which the
entry arrived, hop-count to destination, life-time>
❍ To obtain its distance to destination i.e. hop-count,
a node increments its distance by 1
❍ If route is not used within the life time, it’s deleted

❒ After processing the RREP, the node forwards it towards

the source

65
 AODV – forward path setup
B
RREP

S A
C D

7. Node S receives RREP

 Makes a forward route entry to D
dest=D, nexthop=A, hopcount=3

66
 Receipt of Multiple RREP
 A node may receive multiple RREP for a given
destination from more than one neighbor
❍ The node only forwards the first RREP it receives
❍ May forward another RREP if that has greater
destination sequence number or a smaller hop count
❍ The rest are discarded -> reduces the number of RREP
propagating towards the source

❒ Source can begin data transmission upon receiving the

first RREP

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 AODV – Data Delivery
B
DATA

S A
C D

8. Node S receives RREP

 Makes a forward route entry to D
dest=D, nexthop=A, hopcount=3
 Sends data packet on route to D

68
 Route Error
• When node X is unable to forward packet P (from
node S to node D) on link (X,Y), it generates a RERR
message

• Node X increments the destination sequence number

for D cached at node X

• The incremented sequence number N is included in

the RERR

• When node S receives the RERR, it initiates a new

route discovery for D using destination sequence
number at least as large as N
69
 AODV – Route maintenance
B
RERR
S A
C D

1. Link between C and D breaks

2. Node C invalidates route to D in routing table
3. Node C creates Route Error message
 Increments Destination’s sequence number N
 Lists all destinations that are now unreachable
 Sends to upstream neighbors
70
 AODV – Route maintenance
B
RERR
RERR
S A
C D

4. Node A receives RERR

 Checks whether C is its next hop on route to D
 Deletes route to D (makes distance  infinity)
 Forwards RERR to S

71
 AODV – Route maintenance
B
RERR
S A
C D

5. Node S receives RERR

 Checks whether A is its next hop on route to D
 Deletes route to D
 Rediscovers route if still needed using destination
sequence number at least as large as N

72
 Summary: AODV

• Routes need not be included in packet headers (avoids

source routing)

• Nodes maintain routing tables containing entries only for

routes that are in active use

• At most one next-hop per destination maintained at each

node
– DSR may maintain several routes for a single destination

• Unused routes expire even if topology does not change using

TTL

73
 DSR and AODV comparison
• Advantages of DSR
– DSR updates routing tables when a packet is forwarded because
all of them contain the route to the destination
• With a Request-Reply you inform many nodes
• AODV has to send many more packets to update its routes
– DSR can “aggressively” answer to RREQ
• Packets are sent for all possible paths and alternative routes
are learnt
• AODV only sends a packet by one path and a single route is
learnt
• Advantages of AODV
– AODV uses timers in routes and in this way it can avoid errors
produced by expired routes
• DSR can not do that
– AODV sends RERR packets to all destinations, DSR only to the
source and some nodes are not aware of expired routes
74
 Comparison of Proactive and Reactive Routing
Protocols
Routing class Proactive(Table driven) Reactive(On-demand)
Availability of route Always available Determined when needed
Periodic update Yes, some may use Not required
conditional.
Control overhead High Low
Storage requirement High Usually lower than
proactive protocols
Band width requirement High Low
Power requirement High Low
Delay level Small since routes are Higher than proactive
predetermined
Scalability problem Up to 100 nodes more than 100 nodes
Quality of Service support Mainly shortest as the QoS Few can support QoS ,
metric though most support
shortest path
75
 Trade-Off

• Latency of route discovery

– Proactive protocols may have lower latency since routes are
maintained at all times
– Reactive protocols may have higher latency because a route
from X to Y will be found only when X attempts to send to Y

• Overhead of route discovery/maintenance

– Reactive protocols may have lower overhead since routes are
determined only if needed
– Proactive protocols can (but not necessarily) result in higher
overhead due to continuous route updating

• Which approach achieves a better trade-off depends on the

traffic and mobility patterns

76