A Survey on Parameters Affecting MANET Performance

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is an infrastructure-less network where mobile nodes can share information through wireless links without dedicated hardware that handles the network routing. MANETs’ nodes create on-the-fly connections with each other to share information, and they frequently join and leave MANET during run time. Therefore, flexibility in MANETs is needed to be able to handle variations in the number of existing network nodes. An effective routing protocol should be used to be able to route data packets within this dynamic network. Lacking centralized infrastructure in MANETs makes it harder to secure communication between network nodes, and this lack of infrastructure makes network nodes vulnerable to harmful attacks. Testbeds might be used to test MANETs under specific conditions, but researchers prefer to use simulators to obtain more flexibility and less cost during MANETs’ environment setup and testing. A MANET’s environment is dependent on the required scenario, and an appropriate choice of the used simulator that fulfills the researcher’s needs is very important. Furthermore, researchers need to define the simulation parameters and the other parameters required by the used routing protocol. In addition, if the MANET’s environment handles some conditions where malicious nodes perform network attacks, the parameters affecting the MANET from the attack perspective need to be understood. This paper collects environmental parameters that might be needed to be able to set up the required environment. To be able to evaluate the network’s performance under attack, different environmental parameters that evaluate the overall performance are also collected. A survey of the literature contribution is performed based on 50 recent papers. Comparison tables and statistical charts are created to show the literature contribution and the used parameters within the scope of the collected papers of our survey. Results show that the NS-2 simulator is the most popular simulator used in MANETs.