ABSTRACT
Opportunistic Networks are a kind of network where the source and destination may not have an end-to-end path or a path that exists for a very short and unpredictable span of time. Hence, there are differences in Opportunistic Networks in contrast to Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) in which a path is established between a source and destination before message transmission. The knowledge of network topology is irrelevant to nodes in Opportunistic Networks as opposed to MANETs, where it is a necessity. In Opportunistic Networks, routes are constructed dynamically instead of being static as the source selects a node from neighbouring ones for the next hop by having an assumption regarding the delivery of a message that it will reach close enough to the destination. This work presents simulation and performance evaluation of various routing protocols of Opportunistic Networks. The existing routing protocols of Opportunistic Networks are compared among each other with the help of various factors used for performance evaluation. Opportunistic Network Environment simulator version 1.4.1 is used for the implementation of routing protocols. The performance is analysed on five metrics: message delivery probability, overhead ratio, average buffer time, number of deliveries, and average latency.
