Aligarh Muslim University

Failure of wireless link is considered as one of popular challenges faced by Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs). Whereas this type of networks does not have any fixed routers or any pre-exist infrastructure. Also, every node is capable of movement and can be connected to other nodes dynamically. Therefore, the network topology will be changed frequently and unpredictably according to continuous interaction between nodes that simultaneously affect network topology in the basis of dynamic ad-hoc nature. This factor puts routing operation in critical area of research under mobile ad-hoc network field due to highly dynamic environment. To adapt this nature, MANETs demand new routing strategies to occupy these challenges. Thereafter, huge amount of protocols are proposed to argue with ad-hoc requirements. Thus, it is quite difficult to specify which protocols perform better under different mobile ad-hoc scenarios. This paper examines the prominent routing protocols that are designed for mobile ad-hoc networks by describing their structures, operations, features and then comparing their various characteristics