Virtual structure effects in two hybrid routing protocols for ad hoc networks

The virtual routing protocol and the virtual distance vector are hybrid routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks which are based on virtual structures. Virtual structures are unrelated to the physical network topology and units are responsible for keeping physical routes to their neighbors in the virtual structure. The protocols were designed to work with different virtual structures, like: rings of rings RoR, hypercube, CCC and 3D-torus. This paper compares simulation results of these four different virtual structures. It will be shown through simulation results that the protocols are, to some extent, independent of the graph implementing the virtual structure.

I. Introduction

Routing is a major issue for wireless ad hoc networks. It must be distributed and react promptly to network changes while maintaining the overhead to the minimum. Routing protocols for wireless ad hoc networks can be classified into the main categories of table-driven (or proactive) [3], [6] and on-demand (or reactive) [1], [5], [7]. Other categories of routing protocols can also be found in the literature like: Hybrid routing protocols [4], [2], [9] that mix the proactive and the reactive approaches; among others.