DSR Source Routing Workbench
Step through DSR route discovery, source-route forwarding, route-cache replies, and route-error repair
animation
networking
routing
manet
dsr
Interactive DSR animation for learning Dynamic Source Routing in mobile ad-hoc networks, including RREQ flooding, RREP return, packet source-route headers, cache hits, intermediate cache replies, and route maintenance.
Animation
DSR
Source Routing
Reactive MANET
DSR Source Routing Workbench
Watch a mobile ad-hoc source discover a route only when it needs one, then carry the complete hop-by-hop route inside each data packet. The key skill is deciding when DSR floods, when it trusts a cache, and what happens when a cached link breaks.
Step 1/1Process progress
ReadyPacket type
No routeSource route
Header 0%Teaching overhead
MANET Route Discovery Scene
ReadyNo packet yetMessage type
No fields selectedImportant fields
No route action yetRouting decision
Source Route Header
Inspected Route Cache
Learning Diagnosis
Reactive discovery pendingStep forward to see whether the source must flood or can use a cached route.
No source route yetOnce a route is known, the complete hop list is carried in the data packet.
Cache state pendingRoute caches save discovery traffic but stale entries must be removed after errors.
Event Transcript
Quick Reference
Route Request (RREQ)Broadcast by the source on a cache miss. Each forwarding node appends itself to the route record and suppresses duplicates for the same request id.
Route Reply (RREP)Returns a complete route to the initiator. In this teaching model links are bidirectional, so the reply can follow the reverse path.
Source Route HeaderData packets carry the route. Relays forward by reading the next address in the header, not by consulting a periodic routing table.
How To Read The Animation
- Blue dashed links are Route Request flooding.
- Orange dashed links are Route Reply or Route Error control traffic returning toward the source.
- Green links are the active source route carried by a data packet.
- The route-cache panel shows the selected node's remembered routes at the current step.
Technical Accuracy Notes
- DSR is reactive: it discovers routes on demand instead of sending periodic table advertisements.
- The animation uses bidirectional links and a simplified request-id model to keep the route record visible.
- The overhead metric is a teaching estimate: 8 bytes of option fields plus 4 bytes per IPv4 route address, compared with the selected payload size.
- Real DSR implementations include additional packet options, cache policies, timers, acknowledgments, and salvaging rules not fully modeled here.