In this paper, the performance of the three MANET Routing protocols such as DSDV,
AODV and DSR was analyzed using NS-2 Simulator. We have done comprehensive
simulation results of Average End-to-End delay, throughput, and packet delivery ratio
over the routing protocols DSDV, DSR and AODV by varying network size, simulation
time. DSDV is a proactive routing protocol and suitable for limited number of nodes
with low mobility due to the storage of routing information in the routing table at each
node. Comparing DSR with DSDV and AODV protocol, byte overhead in each packet
will increase whenever network topology changes since DSR protocol uses source
routing and route cache. Hence, DSR is preferable for moderate traffic with moderate
mobility. As AODV routing protocol needs to find route by on demand, End-to-End delay will
be higher than other protocols. DSDV produces low end-to-end delay compared to other
protocols. When the network load is low, AODV performs better in case of packet delivery
ratio but it performs badly in terms of average End-to-End delay and throughput. Overall, DSR
outperforms AODV because it has less routing overhead when nodes have high mobility
considering the above said three metrics.