International Journal of Science, Engineering and TechnologyAuthors: Associate Professor Dr. Santosh G Kupendra
Abstract: Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) deployed in emergency response or vehicular contexts frequently face the dual challenges of high node mobility and large-scale, dense topologies. In such dynamic environments, frequent link breakages trigger continuous route rediscoveries. For traditional routing protocols like AODV, this results in severe broadcast storms of control packets, rapidly draining the limited battery power of mobile nodes and leading to cascading network failures. This paper critically evaluates the scalability and energy efficiency of the battery-aware AODV-EXT-BP (AODV Extended with Battery Power) protocol under extreme topological stress. While AODV-EXT-BP has proven effective in stable, small-scale networks by bypassing energy-depleted nodes during route discovery, its behavior in highly volatile environments requires rigorous assessment. We conduct extensive simulations utilizing aggressive mobility models—including Random Waypoint and Gauss-Markov with high node velocities—and scale the network density from 50 to 500 nodes to observe the protocol's performance limits. The evaluation focuses on the tradeoff between energy preservation and routing overhead. Simulation results demonstrate that AODV-EXT-BP exhibits robust scalability. By isolating nodes that fall below critical battery thresholds, the protocol effectively dampens the propagation of redundant Route Request (RREQ) packets during high-frequency topology changes. Compared to standard AODV and AODV-EXT, AODV-EXT-BP successfully reduces normalized routing overhead in large networks and extends the mean network lifetime by up to 30%, proving it to be a highly viable, energy-efficient routing solution for dynamic, large-scale MANET deployments.
