Mobile ad-hoc networks: Applications and challenges

A Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET)is a type of network in which mobile nodes form a self-creating, self-organizing and self-administering wireless network that communicates with each otherwithout any external centralized control or established infrastructure. The wireless links in this network are prone to errors and go down often due to mobility of nodes, interference and less infrastructure.The intrinsic flexibility, lack of infrastructure, ease of deployment, low cost andpotential applications make it an essential part of future pervasive computing environments.In recent years, several routing protocols have been proposed for mobile Ad-hoc networks and well-known among them are DSR, AODV, ZRP and TORA. This research paper provides an overview of these protocols with their characteristics, functionality, benefits,limitations and then makes their comparative analysis soas to analyze their performance.