Mobile ad hoc network

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET), sometimes called a mobile mesh network, is a self-configuring network of mobile devices connected by wireless links.^[1]

Each device in a MANET is free to move independently in any direction, and will therefore change its links to other devices frequently. Each must forward traffic unrelated to its own use, and therefore be a router. The primary challenge in building a MANET is equipping each device to continuously maintain the information required to properly route traffic.

Such networks may operate by themselves or may be connected to the larger Internet.

MANETs are a kind of wireless ad hoc networks that usually has a routeable networking environment on top of a Link Layer ad hoc network. They are also a type of mesh network, but many mesh networks are not mobile or not wireless.

The growth of laptops and 802.11/Wi-Fi wireless networking have made MANETs a popular research topic since the mid- to late 1990s. Many academic papers evaluate protocols and abilities assuming varying degrees of mobility within a bounded space, usually with all nodes within a few hops of each other and usually with nodes sending data at a constant rate. Different protocols are then evaluated based on the packet drop rate, the overhead introduced by the routing protocol, and other measures.

Types of MANET

• Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are used for communication among vehicles and between vehicles and roadside equipment.
• Intelligent vehicular ad hoc networks (InVANETs) are a kind of artificial intelligence that helps vehicles to behave in intelligent manners during vehicle-to-vehicle collisions, accidents, drunken driving etc.
• Internet Based Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (iMANET) are ad-hoc networks that link mobile nodes and fixed Internet-gateway nodes. In such type of networks normal ad-hoc routing algorithms don't apply directly.

Practical use

One Laptop per Child program has developed a laptop making use of an IEEE 802.11s based ad hoc wireless mesh networking chip. It is the only such device sold to consumers.

In September 2007, the Swedish company TerraNet AB presented a mesh network of mobile phones that allowed calls and data to be routed between participating handsets, without cell sites.^[2]

See also

• List of ad-hoc routing protocols
• Delay-tolerant networking
• Wireless community network
• Mesh network
• Wireless mesh network
• Wizzy Digital Courier
• Real Time Locating
• B.A.T.M.A.N. (Better Approach To Mobile Adhoc Networking)

References

1. ^ Tomas Krag and Sebastian Büettrich (2004-01-24). "Wireless Mesh Networking". http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2004/01/22/wirelessmesh.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-20. 
2. ^ "Mobile system promises free calls". BBC. 2007-09-11. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6987784.stm. Retrieved on 2008-02-12. 

Further reading

Mobile ad hoc social network (Overview):

• Rheingold, Howard (2002). "MAS 214, Macquarie University, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution". The Power of the Mobile Many: 288. 

Packet Radio Papers:

• Burchfiel, J., Tomlinson, R., Beeler, M. (1975). "Functions and structure of a packet radio station". AFIPS: 245. 
• Kahn, R. E. (January 1977). "The Organization of Computer Resources into a Packet Radio Network". IEEE Transactions on Communications COM-25 (1): 169–178. 
• Kahn, R. E., Gronemeyer, S. A., Burchfiel, J., Kunzelman, R. C. (November 1978). "Advances in Packet Radio Technology". Proceedings of IEEE 66 (11): 1468–1496. 
• Jubin, J., and Tornow, J. D. (January 1987). "The DARPA Packet Radio Network Protocols". Proceedings of the IEEE 75 (1). 
• N. Schacham and J. Westcott (January 1987). "Future directions in packet radio architectures and protocols". Proceedings of the IEEE 75 (1): 83–99. doi:10.1109/PROC.1987.13707. 

Ad Hoc Network Papers (Overview):

• Royer, E., Toh, C. (April 1999). "A Review of Current Routing Protocols for Ad Hoc Mobile Wireless Networks". IEEE Personal Communications 6 (2): 46–55. doi:10.1109/98.760423. 
• Mauve, M., Widmer, J., Hartenstein, H. (December 2001). "A Survey on Position-Based Routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks". IEEE Network 1 (6): 30–39. doi:10.1109/65.967595. 
• Maihöfer, C. (2nd quarter 2004). "A Survey on Geocast Routing Protocols". IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials 6 (2). 

Ad Hoc Network Books :

• Ozan, K. Tonguz, Gianluigi Ferrari (May 2006). John Wiley & Sons.. ed. Ad Hoc Wireless Networks: A Communication-Theoretic Perspective. 
• C K Toh (January 2002). Prentice Hall Publishers. ed. Ad Hoc Mobile Wireless Networks: Protocols & Systems. ISBN 0130078174. 

Intelligent Ad Hoc Vehicular Network Papers (Overview):

• Arunkumar Thangavelu, Sivanandam S.N (February 2007A). "Location Identification and Vehicular Tracking for Vehicular Ad Hoc Wireless Networks". IEEE Explorer 1 (2): 112–116. 

External links

• IETF MANET group
• Additional MANET WG page
• NIST MANET and Sensor Network Security project
• Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Bibliography
• InADVENC Google Groups(InVANET)
• DARPA's ITMANET program and the FLoWS project
• DARPA's ITMANET program and the Nequit project
• IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society - for VANETs
• MANET The future of battlefield communications? (page 30)

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