Wireless networks are characterized by a dynamic topology triggered by the
nodes mobility. Thus, the wireless multi-hops connection and the channel do not
have a determinist behaviour such as: interference or multiple paths. Moreover,
the nodes' invisibility makes the wireless channel difficult to detect. This
wireless networks' behaviour should be scrutinized. In our study, we mainly
focus on radio propagation models by observing the evolution of the routing
layer's performances in terms of the characteristics of the physical layer. For
this purpose, we first examine and then display the simulation findings of the
impact of different radio propagation models on the performance of ad hoc
networks. To fully understand how these various radio models influence the
networks performance, we have compared the performances of several routing
protocols (DSR, AODV, and DSDV) for each propagation model. To complete our
study, a comparison of energy performance based routing protocols and
propagation models are presented. In order to reach credible results, we
focused on the notion of nodes' speed and the number of connections by using
the well known network simulator NS-2.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, International Journal of Distributed and
Parallel Systems (IJDPS) Vol.3, No.1, January 201