Comparative Study of Proactive, Reactive and Geographical MANET Routing Protocols

Mobile Adhoc Network (MANET) is defined as a combination of mobile nodes that lack a fixed infrastructure and is quickly deployable under any circumstances. These nodes have self-aware architecture and are able to move in multiple directions, which renders it dynamic topology. Its dynamicity makes routing in MANET rather challenging compared to fixed wired networks. This paper aims to perform a comparative study on the three categories of MANET routing protocol by comparing their characteristics and operations, as well as their strength and weaknesses.