Performance Assessment of Optimized Link State Routing Protocol on Vehicular Ad Hoc Network Simulation

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) are dedicated forms of wireless communication networks designed to handle the challenges of vehicular environments, including high mobility, varying traffic densities, and constantly changing topologies. These factors necessitate the development and evaluation of routing protocols to ensure reliable data communication between vehicles. This study evaluates the performance of the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol within Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs), focusing on its capability to handle different traffic densities and dynamic environments. Reliable data communication in VANETs is critical due to the high mobility and constantly changing topologies, especially in urban and highway settings. Using NS-3 for network simulation and Simulation of Urban MObility (SUMO) for realistic vehicular mobility modelling, we conducted a series of simulations to assess OLSR’s performance in low-density and high-density scenarios across highway and urban environments. Key performance metrics, including packet delivery ratio (PDR), end-to-end delay (E2ED) and throughput were analyzed to capture OLSR’s strengths and weaknesses in each setting. The analysis showed that OLSR excels in low-density highway scenarios, achieving a PDR of 100% and low E2ED. However, in high-density urban settings, the protocol encounters performance challenges, with a reduced PDR of 81.40% and a high E2ED of 85.52 seconds, indicating delays in data transmission. These findings emphasize the limitations of OLSR in dense urban environments, highlighting the necessity for adaptive routing protocols that can improve performance in complex, high-density vehicular networks. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2025-06-01-019 Full Text: PDF