Assessment of Routing Protocols in Mobile Wireless Networks

Abstract

The history of wireless networks started in the seventies and the interest has been growing ever since. It dates back when the U.S.A (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) DARPA worked on PRNET (Packet Radio Network) and SURAN (Survivable Adaptive Networks) projects. They supported automatic route setup and maintenance in packet radio networks with moderate mobility. During the last decade, and especially at its end, the interest has almost exploded probably because of the fast growing in communication infrastructure and advances in hardware design resulting in affordable, portable, low-power, wireless communication devices. Today we see two kinds of wireless networks but the difference between them is not as obvious as it may seem. The first kind, and the mostly used today, is a wireless network built on top of a wired network and thus creates a reliable infrastructured wireless network. The wireless nodes connected to the wired network and able to act as bridges in a network of this kind are called base stations.