An Overview of MANET: Applications, Attacks and Challenges?

Advancement in the field of internet due to wireless networking technologies gives rise to many new applications. Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is one of the most promising fields for research and development of wireless network. As the popularity of mobile device and wireless networks significantly increased over the past years, wireless ad-hoc networks has now become one of the most vibrant and active field of communication and networks. A mobile ad hoc network is an autonomous collection of mobile devices (laptops, smart phones, sensors, etc.) that communicate with each other over wireless links and cooperate in a distributed manner in order to provide the necessary network functionality in the absence of a fixed infrastructure. This type of network, operating as a stand-alone network or with one or multiple points of attachment to cellular networks or the Internet, paves the way for numerous new and exciting applications. This paper provides insight into the potential applications of ad hoc networks, various attacks and discusses the technological challenges that protocol designers and network developers are faced with.