MANET

Abstract

In the recent years communication technology and services have advanced. Mobility has become very important, as people want to communicate anytime from and to anywhere. In the areas where there is little or no infrastructure is available or the existing wireless infrastructure is expensive and inconvenient to use, Mobile Ad hoc Networks, called MANETs, are becoming useful. They are going to become integral part of next generation mobile services.

Description of MANET

 

A MANET is a collection of wireless nodes that can dynamically form a network to exchange information without using any pre-existing fixed network infrastructure. The special features of MANET bring this technology great opportunity together with severe challenges.The military tactical and other security-sensitive operations are still the main applications of ad hoc networks, although there is a trend to adopt ad hoc networks for commercial uses due to their unique properties. However, they face a number of problems.
Some of the technical challenges MANET poses are also presented based on which the paper points out the related kernel barrier. Some of the key research issues for ad hoc networking technology are discussed in detail that are expected to promote the development and accelerate the commercial applications of the MANET technology.During the last decade, advances in both hardware and software techniques have resulted in mobile hosts and wireless networking common and miscellaneous. Generally there are two distinct approaches for enabling wireless mobile units to communicate with each other.

Infrastructureless Approach

As to infrastructureless approach, the mobile wireless network is commonly known as a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) [1, 2]. A MANET is a collection of wireless nodes that can dynamically form a network to exchange information without using any pre-existing fixed network infrastructure. It has many important applications, because in many contexts information exchange between mobile units cannot rely on any fixed network infrastructure, but on rapid configuration of a wireless connections on-the-fly. Wireless ad hoc networks themselves are an independent, wide area of research and applications, instead of being only just a complement of the cellular system.

In this paper, we describes the fundamental problems of ad hoc networking by giving its related research background including the concept, features, status, and applications of MANET. Some of the technical challenges MANET poses are also presented based on which the paper points out the related kernel barrier. Some of the key research issues for adhoc networking technology are discussed in detail that are expected to promote the development and accelerate the commercial applications of the MANET technology.

MANET Applications

With the increase of portable devices as well as progress in wireless communication, ad hoc networking is gaining importance with the increasing number of widespread applications. Ad hoc networking can be applied anywhere where there is little or no communication infrastructure or the existing infrastructure is expensive or inconvenient to use. Ad hoc networking allows the devices to maintain connections to the network as well as easily adding and removing devices to and from the network. The set of applications for MANETs is diverse, ranging from large-scale, mobile, highly dynamic networks, to small, static networks that are constrained by power sources.