International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 5– No.10, August 2010 16 Traffic Pattern based performance comparison of Reactive and Proactive protocols of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks Vikas Singla, Lecturer, Department of Information Technology, MIMIT, Malout, Punjab, India. Parveen Kakkar Sr. Lecturer, Department of Computer Science & Engg, DAVIET, Jalandhar, Punjab,India. ABSTRACT The primary objective of this research work is to study and investigate the performance measures of Reactive protocols (AODV, TORA) and Proactive protocols (DSDV) routing protocols of MANET using TCP & CBR based traffic models. In this paper we will simulate the environment used for analyzing, evaluating and implementing AODV, DSDV and TORA routing protocols in MANET, to analyze the performance of above said protocols based on Packet Delivery Ratio, Average End-to-End Delay and Throughput. We will investigate the effect of change in number of nodes on MANET routing protocols. Here, we will analyze and compare the performance of MANET routing protocols based on both CBR and TCP based traffic patterns. We have used the NS-2 simulator for performing various simulations and used awk scripts for analyzing the results. Keywords MANET, Routing, Ad-hoc, Protocol, Performance, Simulation, AODV, TORA, DSDV. 1. INTRODUCTION An ad-hoc network is a collection of wireless mobile nodes dynamically forming a temporary network without the aid of any established infrastructure or centralized administration. The system may operate in isolation, or may have gateways to interface with a fixed network. Ad hoc networks have no fixed routers; all nodes are capable of movement and can be connected dynamically in an arbitrary manner. Nodes of these networks, which function as routers, discover and maintain routes to other nodes in the network. The topology of the ad hoc network depends on the transmission power of the nodes and the location of the mobile nodes, which may change with time. The nodes (a router with multiple hosts and wireless communications devices) are free to move about and organize themselves randomly. These nodes may be located in or on airplanes, ships, trucks, cars, or on very small devices, and there may be multiple hosts per router. In general, Ad hoc wireless networks are self-creating, self- organizing, and self-administrating networks. Hence, they offer unique benefits and flexibility for a variety of situations and applications. Because of these features, the Ad hoc networks are used where wired network and mobile access is either unproductive or not feasible. A few possible examples include: earthquake hit areas, where infrastructure is destroyed, military soldiers in a destructive environment; virtual classrooms, biological detection, tracking of rare animal, space exploration, and undersea operations. A fundamental problem in ad hoc networking is how to deliver data packets among MNs efficiently without predetermined topology or centralized control, which is the main objective of ad hoc routing protocols. Since mobile ad hoc networks change their topology frequently, routing in such networks is a challenging task. Moreover, bandwidth, energy and physical security are limited. With the increasing popularity of mobile devices and wireless networks over the past few years, wireless ad-hoc networks has now become one of the most vibrant and active fields of communication and networking research. 2. ROUTING PROTOCOLS Routing in Mobile Ad-hoc Network has been a subject of extensive research over the past several years. Because of the fact that it may be necessary to pass several hops (multi-hop) before a packet reaches the destination, a routing protocol is needed. Routing protocol has two functions: i. Selection of routes for various source-destination pairs ii. Delivery of messages to their correct destination. The second function is conceptually straightforward using a variety of protocols and data structures (routing tables). Ad-hoc routing protocols can be classified based on different criteria. Depending upon the routing mechanism employed by a given protocol, it may fall under more than one class. Routing protocols for Ad-hoc networking can be classified into four categories viz. (i) Based on routing information update routing mechanism (proactive or table-driven, reactive or on-demand and hybrid protocols), (ii) Based on the use of Temporal information (Past Temporal and Future Temporal) for routing, (iii) Based on routing topology (Flat Topology, Hierarchical Topology), (iv) Based on the Utilization of Specific Resources (Power Aware Routing and Geographical Information Assisted Routing) . 2.1 Adhoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) [4, 5, 6, 7] AODV is a purely reactive routing protocol. In this protocol, each terminal does not need to keep a view of the whole network or a route to every other terminal. Nor does it need to periodically exchange route information with the neighbor terminals. Furthermore, only when a mobile terminal has packets to send to a destination does it need to discover and maintain a route to that destination terminal. In AODV, each terminal contains a route table for a destination. A route table stores the following information: destination address and its sequence number, active neighbors for the route, hop count to the destination, and expiration time for the table. The expiration time is updated each time the route is used. If this route has not been used for a specified period of time, it is discarded. 2.2 Destination Sequenced Distance-Vector Routing (DSDV) [8] The Destination Sequenced Distance Vector Protocol (DSDV) is a proactive, distance vector protocol which uses the Bellmann -