Simulation of Mobile ad hoc Network

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET), is a self-configuring infrastructure less network of mobile devices connected by wireless links. ad hoc is Latin and means "for this purpose".

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 routable networking environment on top of a Link Layer ad hoc network.

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

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.

Simulation of MANETs

                                

In general, there are two ways to develop simulations of MANETs. Either use a custom platform to develop the simulation. And the second option is to develop one's own simulation/ Network Simulators like Opnet, NetSim and NS2 can be used to simulate MANETs.