Energy Conservation is a critical issue in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) for node and network lifetime. MANET nodes have limited battery power, limited computational power and small amount of memory. Such nodes must conserve energy to prolong the network lifetime. Different energy aware routing protocols use traditional protocols like AODV and DSR as base protocols. The selection of base protocol assumes importance for any kind of energy related proposal based on them. In this paper, a critical analysis for AODV and DSR, widely used on demand routing protocol, has been done for different energy related parameters like network lifetime, death rate of nodes, average energy distribution etc. to aid in deciding the base protocol should be chosen in different network conditions. Extensive simulation has been done to benchmark the performance of AODV and DSR in different network scenarios.

Routing, Active Routes, Local Repair