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Definition
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.
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:
Infrastructured
Wireless
mobile networks have traditionally been based on the cellular concept and relied
on good infrastructure support, in which mobile devices communicate with access
points like base stations connected to the fixed network infrastructure. Typical
examples of this kind of wireless networks are GSM, UMTS, WLL, WLAN, etc.
Infrastructureless
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 details that are expected to promote the development
and accelerate the commercial applications of the MANET technology.
Difference
between MANET and WLAN
MANETs are dynamically
created and maintained by the individual nodes comprising the network. They do
not require a pre-existing architecture for communication purposes and do not
rely on any type of wired infrastructure; in an ad hoc network all communication
occurs through a wireless median. MANET comprises a special subset of wireless
networks since they do not require the existence of a centralized message-passing
device. Simple wireless networks require the existence of access points or static
base stations (BS), which are responsible for routing messages to and from mobile
nodes (MNs) within the specified transmission area. Ad hoc networks, on the other
hand, do not require the existence of any device other than two or more MNs willing
to cooperatively form a network. Instead
of relying on a wired BS to coordinate the flow of messages to each MN, the individual
MNs form their own network and forward packets to and from each other. This adaptive
behavior allows a network to be quickly formed even under the most adverse conditions.
Other characteristics of ad hoc networks include "team collaboration of a
large number of MN units, limited bandwidth, the need for supporting multimedia
real time traffic and low latency access to distributed resources (e.g. distributed
database access for situation awareness in the battlefield).
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