Abstract

ABSTRACT Communication between nodes in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) is one of the challenging tasks because there are no fixed routes among different nodes in mobile ad-hoc network. Routes change continuously due to node mobility in MANET. Communication process is achieved through routing algorithms. Routing algorithms perform best path selection among the available paths in MANET. There are two routing algorithms used for communication which are called flooding and broadcasting. Flooding and broadcasting are the only options available for route discovery between unknown nodes in MANET which create network congestion, delay and reliability problems. Routing algorithms use different approaches to perform efficient communication in MANET which include Proactive Approach, Reactive Approach and Hybrid Approach. In this paper, all those Proactive, Reactive and Hybrid routing protocols that contribute towards the route discovery among different nodes of ad hoc network will be reviewed and critically analyzed to evaluate the performance of different routing protocols that could enable the researchers to keep them under consideration when conducting research.