A user space implementation of the AODVv2 routing protocol

Abstract

Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) protocol is a reactive MANET routing protocol frequently used as reference for either developing new ad hoc routing protocols or performance assessment purposes. Although it is present in several general-purpose network simulators (e.g. ns2, omnetpp, etc.), there are few implementations that can be used under real conditions for on-field research or performance evaluation. This paper presents a user space implementation of the last version of this protocol, the AODVv2, that can be deployed in any device able to run the Linux O.S. The goal is developing a fresh, open source and easy-to-maintain implementation of the AODVv2 protocol that can be used by the research community for testing purposes. The paper provides a description of the main design and encoding decisions taken in order to implement the protocol, and explains the main testing actions carried out to prove its correctness.