Ad-hoc network

An ad-hoc (or "spontaneous") network is a local area network or other small network, especially one with wireless or temporary plug-in connections, in which some of the network devices are part of the network only for the duration of a communications session or, in the case of mobile or portable devices, while in some close proximity to the rest of the network. In Latin, ad hoc literally means "for this," further meaning "for this purpose only," and thus usually temporary.
The term has been applied to future office or home networks in which new devices can be quickly added, using, for example, the proposed Bluetooth technology in which devices communicate with the computer and perhaps other devices using wireless transmission.
One vendor offers an ad-hoc network technology that allows people to come to a conference room and, using infrared transmission or radio frequency (RF) wireless signals, join their notebook computers with other conferees to a local network with shared data and printing resources. Each user has a unique network address that is immediately recognized as part of the network. The technology would also include remote users and hybrid wireless/wire connections.

Jini is an approach to instant recognition of new devices in a network that would seem to make it easier to have an ad-hoc network.

Mobile ad-hoc network

A mobile ad-hoc network (MANet) is a kind of wireless ad-hoc network, and 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.

Mobile ad-hoc networks became a popular subject for research as laptops and 802.11/Wi-Fi wireless networking became widespread in the mid- to late 1990s. Many of the 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

In the next generation of wireless communication systems, there will be a need for the rapid deployment of independent mobile users. Significant examples include establishing survivable, efficient, dynamic communication for emergency/rescue operations, disaster relief efforts, and military networks. Such network scenarios cannot rely on centralized and organized connectivity, and can be conceived as applications of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks. A MANET is an autonomous collection of mobile users that communicate over relatively bandwidth constrained wireless links. Since the nodes are mobile, the network topology may change rapidly and unpredictably over time.

The network is decentralized, where all network activity including discovering the topology and delivering messages must be executed by the nodes themselves, i.e., routing functionality will be incorporated into mobile nodes.

The set of applications for MANETs is diverse, ranging from small, static networks that are constrained by power sources, to large-scale, mobile, highly dynamic networks. The design of network protocols for these networks is a complex issue. Regardless of the application, MANETs need efficient distributed algorithms to determine network organization, link scheduling, and routing. However, determining viable routing paths and delivering messages in a decentralized environment where network topology fluctuates is not a well-defined problem.

While the shortest path (based on a given cost function) from a source to a destination in a static network is usually the optimal route, this idea is not easily extended to MANETs. Factors such as variable wireless link quality, propagation path loss, fading, multiuser interference, power expended, and topological changes, become relevant issues. The network should be able to adaptively alter the routing paths to alleviate any of these effects.

Moreover, in a military environment, preservation of security, latency, reliability, intentional jamming, and recovery from failure are significant concerns. Military networks are designed to maintain a low probability of intercept and/or a low probability of detection. Hence, nodes prefer to radiate as little power as necessary and transmit as infrequently as possible, thus decreasing the probability of detection or interception. A lapse in any of these requirements may degrade the performance and dependability of the network.

The concepts and operational requirements associated with the current idea of MANETs are discussed in the mobile computing and networking literature, notably documents and standards developed by the MANET Working Group of the Routing Area of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).