Edinburgh Napier University

  Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) introduce a new communication paradigm, which does not require a fixed infrastructure - they rely on wireless terminals for routing and transport services. Typical research issues of MANETs include adaptability to network dynamics, routing efficiency, and scalability, to mention a few. For this purpose, a wealth of innovative protocols has been introduced. However, the analysis of existing systems is often restricted to specific scenarios and fails to identify some of the protocol limitations and their causes. In this paper, we select four representative protocols and carry out a simulation-based, comparative analysis. We capture the sensitivity to a range of parameters, considering scenarios which complement previous studies. In addition to finding some inconsistencies with existing literature, we come to a better understanding of MANETs under more realistic conditions.