Performance Analysis of A∗-Based Hop Selection Technique in Opportunistic Networks Through Movement Mobility Models

In recent times, it has been observed that opportunistic networks (OPPNET) are attracted by many researchers. The reason behind it is that no end-to-end connectivity exists and still the messages are communicated from the source to destination in this network. This is because, this network uses the node’s mobility for routing and hence selection of mobility models are considered very crucial while evaluating the movement of the nodes in any routing protocol. Appropriate selection of a mobility model is important for evaluating the performance of the protocol and secondly, to substantiate its applicability in the real-world scenario. This chapter analyzes the impact that three specific mobility models (namely SPMBM, RWP, and RTT) have on the performance of the existing A*OR protocol for OppNets using average hop count, delivered messages, number of message dropped, overhead ratio, and average latency as performance metrics. A suitable environment is set up using ONE simulator for simulating the A∗OR protocol over different movement models. Experimental results show significant variations in the performance of A∗OR for the SPMBM, RWP, and RTT. In terms of delivery predictability, the SPMBMM model is 80% better than RWP and 90% than RTT. The average latency of the SPMBMM model is 16% better than RWP and 59% than RTT when TTL varies in the network.