Implementing MSR and BSR in a wireless ad hoc testbed

Abstract

Ad hoc networks are receiving more and more attentions these years due to their flexibility of fast network organization. The challenge for such networks is the design of efficient dynamic routing protocols adaptive to the frequent topology changes. The CCNR lab has invented the MSR (Multipath Source Routing) and BSR (Backup Source Routing) as improvement over the popular DSR. MSR can support multiple paths and to effectively reduce the congestion problems in networks while BSR (Backup Source Routing) can increase the communication reliability. In this thesis, we have setup an ad-hoc network testbed consisting of IBM laptops equipped with wireless cards. We have coded and implemented the DSR, MSR and BSR algorithms in the Linux Operating System. Systematic tests and measurements of delay, throughput, and loss rate under various indoor and outdoor scenarios (as well as static and mobile) were carried out so that we can study the tradeoffs among these protocols. Based on our experiments, we have proposed, implemented and demonstrated an improved version of the MSR. We have also implemented these protocols in Qualnet, one of the latest simulation languages built for ad-hoc networking.