Scalability in MANETs Under the Influence of Dynamic Propagation Loss Models

Simulation based performance analysis studies for very large (i.e. up to thousands of nodes) Mobile Adhoc NETworks (MANETs) have considered simplistic radio propagation environment (i.e. for urban structures) such as Free Space or Two Ray Ground (TRG) path loss models resulting in over optimistic network performance. This study covers the aspect of scalability with a famous routing approach (i.e. Adhoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing AODV) under dynamic propagation loss conditions (i.e. Line of Sight LoS or Non Line of Sight NLoS environment) for ITU propagation models and compares the results with Network Simulator 2 (ns-2) based simulation analysis for TRG model. Results indicate that there is a significant difference in network performance if the propagation environment behaves like ITU path loss models.