Optimized Link State Routing Protocol

The Optimized Link State Routing Protocol is a IP protocol that is mainly used to increase the efficiency of ad hoc networks but it can also be used with wireless ad hoc networks.

It is a proactive link state routing protocol means the path to send data is decided and not changed it will remain fixed  in  the algorithm  working.

Individual nodes use this topology information to compute next hop destinations for all nodes in the network using shortest hop forwarding paths.

Link-state routing protocols such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) select a designated router on every link to perform flooding of topology information.

In wireless ad hoc networks, there is different notion of a link, packets can and do go out the same interface; hence, a different approach is needed in order to optimize the flooding process.

Since link-state routing requires the topology database to be synchronized across the network, it  perform topology flooding using a reliable algorithm.

Such an algorithm is very difficult to design for ad hoc wireless networks, so OLSR doesn't bother with reliability; it simply floods topology data often enough to make sure that the database does not remain unsynchronized for extended periods of time.