The Development of a Mobile Ad-Hoc Network Testbed: Modular Implementation of Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing

In communication systems, a Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) is a communication topology that has no central infrastructure, in contrast to more common network topologies such as Wi-fi or cellular towers. MANETs are of particular interest in the field as Internet-of-Things (IOT) applications and the push towards 6th-generation (6G) communications continues. MANET networks provide communication access to all nodes within the network using peer-to-peer communications, requiring extensive maintenance and updating of routes within the network as nodes move around. Routing protocols must be designed and used for these networks, and are typically complex algorithms that are difficult to implement on hardware. To combat this, this work presents a MANET testbed, designed to provide users with an Application Programming Interface (API) that separates routing protocol implementation from operating system functionality. To verify the testbed, this work also presents an implementation of Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) that uses the provided API functions. By comparing simulation results from Network Simulator 3 (NS3), a physical implementation, and a physical implementation that uses firewall capabilities to form the network, a full evaluation of AODV and the MANET testbed is performed