Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing is a routing protocol for Mobile
Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) and other wireless ad-hoc networks. It is jointl de!eloped
in Nokia "esearch #enter of $ni!ersit of #alifornia% &anta 'arbara and $ni!ersit of
#incinnati b #. (erkins and &. )as
*+,
. A-). is capable of both unicast and /ulticast
routing. It is a reacti!e routing protocol% /eaning that it establishes a route to a
destination onl on de/and. In contrast% the /ost co//on routing protocols of the
Internet are proacti!e% /eaning the find routing paths independentl of the usage of the
paths. A-). is% as the na/e indicates% a distance-!ector routing protocol. A-). a!oids
the counting-to-infinity proble/ of other distance-!ector protocols b using se0uence
nu/bers on route updates% a techni0ue pioneered b )&)..
In A-).% the network is silent until a connection is needed. At that point the network
node that needs a connection broadcasts a re0uest for connection. -ther A-). nodes
forward this /essage% and record the node that the heard it fro/% creating an e1plosion
of te/porar routes back to the need node. 2hen a node recei!es such a /essage and
alread has a route to the desired node% it sends a /essage backwards through a
te/porar route to the re0uesting node. The need node then begins using the route that
has the least nu/ber of hops through other nodes. $nused entries in the routing tables are
reccled after a ti/e.
2hen a link fails% a routing error is passed back to a trans/itting node% and the process
repeats.
Much of the co/ple1it of the protocol is to lower the nu/ber of /essages to conser!e
the capacit of the network. 3or e1a/ple% each re0uest for a route has a se0uence
nu/ber. Nodes use this se0uence nu/ber so that the do not repeat route re0uests that
the ha!e alread passed on. Another such feature is that the route re0uests ha!e a 4ti/e
to li!e4 nu/ber that li/its how /an ti/es the can be retrans/itted. Another such
feature is that if a route re0uest fails% another route re0uest /a not be sent until twice as
/uch ti/e has passed as the ti/eout of the pre!ious route re0uest.
The ad!antage of A-). is that it creates no e1tra traffic for co//unication along
e1isting links. Also% distance !ector routing is si/ple% and doesn5t re0uire /uch /e/or
or calculation. 6owe!er A-). re0uires /ore ti/e to establish a connection% and the
initial co//unication to establish a route is hea!ier than so/e other approaches.
3or other alternati!es see the Ad hoc routing protocol list.
Ad 6oc on-de/and distance !ector (A-).) routing protocol uses an on-de/and
approach for finding routes% that is% a route is established onl when it is re0uired b a
source node for trans/itting data packets. It e/plos destination se0uence nu/bers to
identif the /ost recent path. The /ajor difference between A-). and )&" ste/s out
fro/ the fact that )&" uses source routing in which a data packet carries the co/plete
path to be tra!ersed. 6owe!er% in A-).% the source node and the inter/ediate nodes
store the ne1t-hop infor/ation corresponding to each flow for data packet trans/ission.
In an on-de/and routing protocol% the source node floods the "oute"e0uest packet in the
network when a route is not a!ailable for the desired destination. It /a obtain /ultiple
routes to different destinations fro/ a single "oute"e0uest. The /ajor difference
between A-). and other on-de/and routing protocols is that it uses a destination
se0uence nu/ber ()est&e0Nu/) to deter/ine an up-to-date path to the destination. A
node updates its path infor/ation onl if the )est&e0Nu/ of the current packet recei!ed
is greater than the last )est&e0Nu/ stored at the node. A "oute"e0uest carries the
source identifier (&rcI))% the destination identifier ()estI))% the source se0uence nu/ber
(&rc&e0Nu/)% the destination se0uence nu/ber ()es&e0Nu/)% the broadcast identifier
('castI))% and the ti/e to li!e (TT7) field. )est&e0Nu/ indicated the freshness of the
route that is accepted b the source. 2hen an inter/ediate node recei!es a "oute"e0uest%
it either forwards it or prepares a "oute"epl if it has a !alid route to the destination. The
!alidit of a route at the inter/ediate node is deter/ined b co/paring the se0uence
nu/ber at the inter/ediate node with the destination se0uence nu/ber in the
"oute"e0uest packet. If a "oute"e0uest is recei!ed /ultiple ti/es% which is indicated b
the 'castI)-&rcI) pair% the duplicate copies are discarded. All inter/ediate nodes ha!ing
!alid routes to the destination% or the destination node itself% are allowed to send
"oute"epl packets to the source. E!er inter/ediate node% while forwarding a
"oute"e0uest% enters the pre!ious node address and its 'castI). A ti/er is used to delete
this entr in case a "oute"epl is not recei!ed before the ti/er e1pires. This helps in
storing an acti!e path at the inter/ediate node as A-). does not e/plo source routing
of data packets. 2hen a node recei!es a "oute"epl packet% infor/ation about the
pre!ious node fro/ which the packet was recei!ed is also stored in order to forward the
data packet to this ne1t node as the ne1t hop toward the destination.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The /ain ad!antage of this protocol is that routes are established on de/and and
destination se0uence nu/bers are used to find the latest route to the destination. The
connection setup dela is less. -ne of the disad!antages of this protocol is that
inter/ediate nodes can lead to inconsistent routes if the source se0uence nu/ber is !er
old and the inter/ediate nodes ha!e a higher but not the latest destination se0uence
nu/ber% thereb ha!ing stale entries. Also /ultiple "oute"epl packets in response to a
single "oute"e0uest packet can lead to hea! control o!erhead. Another disad!antage of
A-). is that the periodic beaconing leads to unnecessar bandwidth consu/ption.