An ad hoc network is a collection of mobile nodes forming an instant network without fixed topology. In such a network, each node acts as both router and host simultaneously, and can move out or join in the network freely. To facilitate communication within the network a routing protocol is used to discover routes between nodes. The main aim of the routing protocol is to have an efficient route establishment between a pair of nodes, so that messages can be delivered in a timely manner. Routing in the MANETs is a challenging task which has led to development of many different routing protocols for MANETs. In this paper, an attempt has been made to compare two well known reactive routing protocols Ad-hoc On demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) by using three performance metrics Packet Delivery Ratio, Average End to End Delay and Routing Load. The comparison is done by varying number of sources and for each pause time. These simulations are carried out using the NS-2 network simulator.
