Recent developments on mobile ad-hoc networks and vehicular ad-hoc networks

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) have a decentralized nature that makes them suitable for a variety of applications. The main advantage of a MANET [1] is that its nodes can communicate without any infrastructure. As a result, MANETs are usually deployed in battlefields, natural disasters, etc. MANETs differ from the long-established computer networks, as they have unique characteristics. For example, in a MANET, we observe a frequent link breakage because of node mobility, a high channel-error rate, severe link-layer contentions, and different path properties such as delay, bandwidth, and packet loss rate. Due to these characteristics, the overall performance of a MANET is disturbed in terms of packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, network throughput, and network overhead. By applying the principles of MANETs, a vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) [2] can be established in an ad-hoc mode by vehicles. Using a VANET, vehicles can directly communicate among them, with no supporting infrastructure. Besides, VANETs are employed for road monitoring and infotainment applications, which constitute an integral part of the intelligent transportation system paradigm.