Classification of Current Routing Protocols for Ad Hoc Networks - A Review

An ad hoc wireless network is a collection of two or more devices or nodes or terminals with wireless communications and networking capability that communicate with each other without the aid of any centralized administrator also the wireless nodes that can dynamically form a network to exchange information without using any existing fixed network infrastructure. And it‟s an autonomous system in which mobile hosts connected by wireless links are free to be dynamically and some time act as routers at the same time. In order to facilitate communication within the network, a routing protocol is used to discover routes between nodes. The primary goal of such an ad hoc network routing protocol is correct and efficient route establishment between a pair of nodes so that messages may be delivered in a timely manner. Route construction should be done with a minimum of overhead and bandwidth consumption. This article examines routing protocols for ad hoc networks and classify these protocols based on a set of parameters. The article provides an overview of different protocols by presenting their characteristics and functionality, and then provides a classification of these different routing protocols available for the transmission in ad hoc networks.