Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) is a routing protocol for wireless mesh networks. It is similar to AODV in that it forms a route on-demand when a transmitting node requests one. However, it uses source routing instead of relying on the routing table at each intermediate device.

Usually, in environments where infrastructure like routers and access points are absent, DSR enables efficient data packet routing by relying on the cooperation of individual nodes to relay messages to the intended destinations. This protocol plays a crucial role in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), where network topology can frequently change due to node mobility, leading to the need for adaptive, efficient routing.

Determining the source route requires accumulating the address of each device between the source and destination during route discovery. The accumulated path information is cached by nodes processing the route discovery packets. The learned paths are used to route packets. To accomplish source routing, the routed packets contain the address of each device the packet will traverse. This may result in high overhead for long paths or large addresses, like IPv6. To avoid using source routing, DSR optionally defines a flow id option that allows packets to be forwarded on a hop-by-hop basis.

This protocol is truly based on source routing whereby all the routing information is maintained (continually updated) at mobile nodes. It has only two major phases, which are Route Discovery and Route Maintenance. Route Reply would only be generated if the message has reached the intended destination node (route record which is initially contained in Route Request would be inserted into the Route Reply).

To return the Route Reply, the destination node must have a route to the source node. If the route is in the Destination Node's route cache, the route would be used. Otherwise, the node will reverse the route based on the route record in the Route Request message header (this requires that all links are symmetric). In the event of fatal transmission, the Route Maintenance Phase is initiated whereby the Route Error packets are generated at a node. The erroneous hop will be removed from the node's route cache; all routes containing the hop are truncated at that point. Again, the Route Discovery Phase is initiated to determine the most viable route.

For information on other similar protocols, see the list of ad hoc routing protocols.

Dynamic source routing protocol (DSR) is an on-demand protocol designed to restrict the bandwidth consumed by control packets in ad hoc wireless networks by eliminating the periodic table-update messages required in the table-driven approach. The major difference between this and the other on-demand routing protocols is that it is beacon-less and hence does not require periodic hello packet (beacon) transmissions, which are used by a node to inform its neighbors of its presence. The basic approach of this protocol (and all other on-demand routing protocols) during the route construction phase is to establish a route by flooding Route Request packets in the network. The destination node, on receiving a Route Request packet, responds by sending a Route Reply packet back to the source, which carries the route traversed by the Route Request packet received.

Consider a source node that does not have a route to the destination. When it has data packets to be sent to that destination, it initiates a RouteRequest packet. This Route Request is flooded throughout the network. Each node, upon receiving a Route Request packet, rebroadcasts the packet to its neighbors if it has not forwarded it already, provided that the node is not the destination node and that the packet's time to live (TTL) counter has not been exceeded.