Analyzing the Route Cache Timeout Parameter of DSR Protocol in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Routing is an important issue in Mobile ad hoc Networks (MANET). Several routing protocols have been developed in MANET so far. Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) is one of the most commonly used routing protocols in mobile ad hoc networks. DSR is a reactive routing protocol which means that when a node wants to send a packet, it has to make a route discovery to the destination node. When the mobility increases in the network, making route discovery and sending packet to the destination node becomes much more challenging. Increased mobility reduces the performance of all MANET routing protocols. DSR is no exception; increased mobility reduces the performance of DSR protocol and decreases its throughput. In this paper, we present our analysis about the effects of the “Route Cache Timeout” parameter on the performance of DSR protocol.