An energy consumption model for performance analysis of routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks

A mobile ad hoc network (or manet) is a group of mobile, wireless nodes whi ch cooperatively form a network independent of any fixed infrastructure or centralized administration. In particular, a manet has no base stations: a node communicates directly with nodes within wireless range and indirectly with all other nodes using a dynamically-computed, multi-hop route via the other nodes of the manet. Simulation and experimental results are combined to show that energy and ba ndwidth are substantively different metrics and that resource utilization i n manet routing protocols is not fully addressed by bandwidth-centric analy sis. This report presents a model for evaluating the energy consumption beh avior of a mobile ad hoc network. The model was used to examine the energy consumption of two well-known manet routing protocols. Energy-aware perform ance analysis is shown to provide new insights into costly protocol behavio rs and suggests opportunities for improvement at the protocol and link laye rs.