Mobile ad-hoc network - Definition and Overview

A mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a self-configuring network of mobile routers (and associated hosts) connected by wireless links—the union of which form an arbitrary topology. The routers are free to move randomly and organise themselves arbitrarily; thus, the network's wireless topology may change rapidly and unpredictably.

Such a network may operate in a standalone fashion, or may be connected to the larger Internet.

The popular IEEE 802.11 ("Wi-Fi") wireless protocol incorporates an ad-hoc networking system when no wireless access points are present, although it would be considered a very low-grade ad-hoc protocol by specialists in the field. The IEEE 802.11 system only handles traffic within a local "cloud" of wireless devices. Each node transmits and receives data, but does not route anything between the network's systems. However, higher-level protocols can be used to aggregate various IEEE 802.11 ad-hoc networks into MANETs.

A list of some ad-hoc network protocols can be found in the Ad hoc protocol list.

See Also

• Mesh network
• Wireless mesh network

External links

• IETF MANET group (http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/manet-charter.html)
• Mobile Mesh Networking Blog (http://mark.cabiling.free.fr/mobilemesh/)
• CityMesh.de Info-Site about Meshing and MAN (German language) (http://www.CityMesh.de)