Performance Analysis of Typical Routing Protocols for Flying Ad Hoc Networks Under Different Mobility Models

Performance of flying ad hoc networks (FANETs) largely depends on the routing protocol used. Applying conventional traditional mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) routing frameworks to FANETs requires a careful assessment of their compatibility. Crucially, these protocols must be robust enough to handle the volatile link states and rapid topological shifts inherent in high-mobility UAV clusters. Although there have been many works that evaluated and compared the performance of different MANET routing protocols in FANET scenarios through simulation, they ignored the comparative evaluation of various pathfinding schemes across diverse movement patterns. This research addresses this limitation by examining the efficiency of three representative protocols under distinct mobility scenarios using extensive simulations. The findings demonstrate that the selected mobility model influences not only the protocol’s efficiency but also the comparative ranking of different routing protocols. The conclusion of which routing protocol is better or worse obtained under a specific mobility model is usually not universal and only holds for the specific mobility model used. These conclusions will be more helpful for selecting appropriate routing protocols to adapt to the complex and ever-changing UAV network application scenarios.