Mobile Ad-hoc Networks, Routing Analysis

Ad-hoc networks, every node in the network communicates with other nodes directly or indirectly through intermediate nodes that relay its packets because of transmission power limit. So, all the nodes in the network are virtual routers participating in computing and maintaining the routes. Wireless LAN card can also form a temporary Ad-hoc network to share the files. Depending on the node's mobility, there are two types of Ad-hoc networks: Static Ad-hoc Networks and Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs). Sensor network is an example of a typical static Ad-hoc network since most sensors don't move at present. Typically, a sensor network is an equivalent to a static Ad-hoc network in some extent, but high density is an additional property of the sensors. A MANET is defined as a system of independent mobile nodes that can communicate over wireless links without any pre-existing infrastructure. The absence of a fixed infrastructure in MANET poses several types of challenges for it. The biggest challenge among these is routing. Routing is the process of selecting paths in a network along which to send data packets and to exchange information from one host to the other host in a network.