- AODV is a reactive routing protocol that establishes routes on-demand. When a node needs to send a packet to a destination, it broadcasts a route request (RREQ) to its neighbors.
- Neighbors rebroadcast the RREQ, creating a reverse path back to the source. If the destination receives a RREQ, or an intermediate node knows of a route, it responds by unicasting a route reply (RREP) back to the source.
- AODV sets up forward routes at intermediate nodes along the reverse path so bidirectional communication is possible. Route entries expire if not used recently and link failures are reported using route error (RERR) messages to update routing tables.