Outdoor experimental comparison of four ad hoc routing algorithms

Abstract

Most comparisons of wireless ad hoc routing algorithms involve simulated or indoor trial runs, or outdoor runs with only a small number of nodes, potentially leading to an incorrect picture of algorithm performance. In this paper, we report on an outdoor comparison of four different routing algorithms, APRL, AODV, ODMRP, and STARA, running on top of thirty-three 802.11-enabled laptops moving randomly through an athletic field. This comparison provides insight into the behavior of ad hoc routing algorithms at larger real-world scales than have been considered so far. In addition, we compare the outdoor results with both indoor ("tabletop") and simulation results for the same algorithms, examining the differences between the indoor results and the outdoor reality. Finally, we describe the software infrastructure that allowed us to implement the ad hoc routing algorithms in a comparable way, and use the same codebase for indoor, outdoor, and simulated trial runs.