# A Survey on Parameters Affecting MANET Performance
## 6 Conclusions and Future Work  
The efficiency of packet forwarding between nodes depends on the network environment. To set up the MANET environment, researchers need to select a suitable simulator that fits the needed environment. Researchers use MANET simulation tools for different purposes, some of them conduct a performance analysis comparison between different routing protocols, whereas others check the performance of specific protocols under attack. Moreover, a part of the literature contribution analyzes the effect of changing the environment parameters on performance, and others use simulation tools to evaluate the performance of a newly introduced protocol. To be able to control MANET behavior and set up the needed environment for evaluation, researchers should be familiar with different parameters that affect the MANET environment. The efficiency of the MANET's performance is controlled by different parameters that are clustered into three group sets: (1) simulation parameters, (2) routing parameters, and (3) attack parameters.  
In this paper, the key features of different simulation tools in MANETs are provided. A survey is performed against 50 recent papers to summarize the literature contribution. The list of simulation parameter values used in the surveyed papers is mentioned. Additionally, the performed statistics show that NS-2 is the most popular simulator used in the MANET. In addition, the results of this survey show that the minimum defined network area for small networks was found to be 200 m \(\times\) 200 m, and for extensive networks, the network area does not exceed 2500 m \(\times\) 2500 m. The range of simulation time was found to be from 5 s up to 1 h, and the mobility speed range is between 0 for static nodes up to 50 m per second. Furthermore, the number of network nodes for small networks is between 3 and 50 nodes, and for extremely large networks, the number of nodes reaches 600 nodes with a varying number of malicious nodes inside. Additionally, the statistics show that the number of malicious nodes varies between 0 and 60 malicious nodes. All parameters that control the MANET behavior are described along with a list of commonly used evaluation metrics that are used to evaluate network performance. Furthermore, the literature contribution is collected for all parameters. It is noticed that checking the effect of changing routing parameters on the network's performance is not particularly focused on in the literature.  
Future work is recommended to focus on evaluating the effect of changing routing parameters on a MANET's performance. Additionally, an analysis of malicious activities on MANETs under different environments is needed. Finally, the detection and prevention of MANET attacks is an active research area of great interest to many researchers that warrants further exploration.  
Conceptualization, A.M.E., H.K.A., E.G.A. and M.A.A.; methodology, A.M.E., H.K.A., E.G.A. and M.A.A.; software, A.M.E.; validation, H.K.A., E.G.A. and M.A.A.; formal analysis, A.M.E.; investigation, A.M.E.; resources, A.M.E.; data curation, A.M.E., H.K.A., E.G.A., M.S.E., A.D.J. and M.A.A.; writing--original draft preparation, A.M.E.; writing--review and editing, A.M.E., H.K.A., E.G.A., M.S.E., A.D.J. and M.A.A.; visualization, A.M.E. and M.A.A.; supervision, H.K.A., E.G.A., M.S.E., A.D.J. and M.A.A.; project administration, H.K.A. and M.A.A.; funding acquisition, A.D.J. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
Not Applicable.  
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interest or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.