# Moving Ad Hoc Networks--A Comparative Study
###### Abstract  
An ad hoc network is a wireless mobile communication network composed of a group of mobile nodes with wireless transceivers. It does not rely on preset infrastructure and is established temporarily. The mobile nodes of the network use their own wireless transceivers to exchange information; when the information is not within the communication range, other intermediate nodes can be used to relay to achieve communication. They can be widely used in environments that cannot be supported by wired networks or which require communication temporarily, such as military applications, sensor networks, rescue and disaster relief, and emergency response. In MANET, each node acts as a host and as a router, and the nodes are linked through wireless channels in the network. One of the scenarios of MANET is VANET; VANET is supported by several types of fixed infrastructure. Due to its limitations, this infrastructure can support some VANET services and provide fixed network access. FANET is a subset of VANET. SANET is one of the common types of ad hoc networks. This paper could serve as a guide and reference so that readers have a comprehensive and general understanding of wireless ad hoc networks and their routing protocols at a macro level with a lot of good, related papers for reference. However, this is the first paper that discusses the popular types of ad hoc networks along with comparisons and simulation tools for Ad Hoc Networks. M 2  
Ad hoc literally means \"for this purpose\" in Latin. An ad hoc network is also known as a local area network (LAN), which connects the nodes with each other spontaneously without relying on any centralized (Base Station) wireless networks. In an ad hoc network, we can set up a wireless connection where all the device nodes (Computers) communicate with each other directly to exchange information without any Wi-Fi, router, or access point within 100 m of each other. Because of the node mobility, the ad hoc network does not have any fixed topology. However, if a node in the ad hoc network wants to send a message to another node, there should be another node to act as a router to forward the message to the intended node. The objective of this work is to present and explain the current direction and status of the research on the popular types of wireless ad hoc network family (Figure 1). In wireless ad hoc networks, routing refers to the act of transferring information from a source to a destination through the network. The routing protocol is a protocol for the implementation of routing and a mechanism for sharing routing information between routers. It allows routers to exchange routing information and maintain their own routing tables. The routing protocol works at the network layer and is responsible for collecting data about the current state of the network, and for finding the optimal transmission path. Based on these data, the router can create and maintain a routing table for future data packet forwarding. Because the mutual communication between the nodes in the wireless ad hoc network is achieved through multi-hop routing, and this multi-hop communication method must rely on the design of the routing protocol, the routing protocol is an indispensable part of the wireless ad hoc network; its design method and implementation principle play an extremely important role in the performance of the network. The major significance of the work is as follows: it briefly introduces a series of basic concepts and basic knowledge of wireless ad hoc networks, mainly including the definition, classification, characteristics, applications and development of wireless ad hoc networks, and examples of some typical wireless ad hoc networks, as well as the basis of wireless ad hoc network routing protocols, so that readers have a comprehensive and general understanding of wireless ad hoc networks and their routing protocols at a macro level with a lot of good, related papers for reference. No prior work has considered such a comparison to the best of our knowledge.