Simulation of Traffic Loading in Mesh Networks

Abstract

This paper analyzes the performance of reactive, proactive and hybrid routing protocols when used in a wireless mobile peer-to-peer network (MANET). An appropriate algorithm for evaluating the effectiveness of routing protocols is developed. The simulation tool was an OPNET network simulator (Optimized Network Engineering Tool) Modeler version 14.0. The modeling process was based on the fact that the performance of routing protocols in networks with increased scalability and mobility was studied. Two possible situations were considered: UDP traffic was used in the first one, packet delivery is not guaranteed, generating traffic was video conference traffic, in the second one TCP traffic was used, packet delivery is guaranteed, traffic generator was traffic from the FTP server. A simulation model of the video conference network was developed, with each of the nodes in the network configured to run the appropriate routing protocol. Several parameters were analyzed: the amount of lost information (bits/sec), delay (sec), network load (bit/sec), the ratio of the number of retransmitted packets to sent, the intensity of the input stream (bits/sec). Next, a multi-criteria selection of the routing protocol by the method of hierarchy analysis for the video conference was carried out. A matrix of pairwise comparisons was formed among the selected parameters for the second level of the hierarchy, which contains criteria that affect the General goal - the choice of the routing protocol. After the simulation, it was found that the least amount of information loss is characterized by the OLSR protocol, since the amount of information loss is minimized due to the fact that a subset of repeaters is used. The minimum delay we get for the TORA protocol, but this increases the load on the network, because the service information of the protocol is noticeably increased. Based on the scale of the relative importance of the criteria, as well as the results obtained on the basis of the method of analysis of hierarchies, it was found that in the analyzed model it is preferable to use the OLSR protocol as a routing protocol.