Survey of Reactive and Hybrid Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are wireless communication networks that operate without the need for any infrastructure. They are characterized by challenging environments; where the nodes are in constant motion, bandwidth and other resources are limited and the transmission medium prone to errors and collisions. Since wireless transmission ranges are limited, data often has to be relayed through multiple hops, which is why routing protocols are necessary to determine the best routes to send data across. There are numerous MANET routing protocols, categorized in different ways. This paper presents an overview of MANETs routing issues as well as a detailed discussion of the operating principles behind a few selected routing protocols and their relative performance.