In order to improving the performances of shortwave wide area network (WAN), establish a shortwave WAN model and carry through performance analysis. Aiming at the characteristics of shortwave communication, introduce two different routing protocols: proactive routing, exemplified by optimized link state routing (OLSR), and reactive routing, exemplified by dynamic source routing (DSR). After that, terrain, propagation, node and network model of shortwave WAN are built over OPNET, and OLSR and DSR are simulated. The performance of OLSR and DSR is analyzed in the simulation comparison. Simulation results show that each routing protocol has its own advantages and disadvantages, and select routing protocols according to different application requirements. The results of research are proposed providing reference for shortwave WAN routing protocols design.