Misra S., Woungang I., Misra S.C. Guide to Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Springer, 2009. — 581 p. — e-ISBN: 978-1-84800-328-6.Wireless communication technologies are undergoing rapid advancements. The past few years have experienced a steep growth in research in the area of wireless ad hoc networks. The attractiveness of ad hoc networks, in general, is attributed to their characteristics/features such as ability for infrastructure-less setup, minimal or no reliance on network planning and the ability of the nodes to self-organize and self-configure without the involvement of a centralized network manager, router, access point or a switch. These features help to set up a network fast in situations where there is no existing network setup or in times when setting up a fixed infrastructure network is considered infeasible, for example, in times of emergency or during relief operations.
Even though ad hoc networks have emerged to be attractive and they hold great promises for our future, there are several challenges that need to be addressed. Some of the well-known challenges are attributed to issues relating to scalability, quality-of-service, energy efficiency and security.
This handbook attempts to provide a comprehensive guide on fundamental concepts, new ideas and results in the areas of mobile ad hoc and other ad hoc networking systems. This book has been prepared keeping in mind that it needs to prove itself to be a valuable resource dealing with both the important core and the specialized issues in this area. We have attempted to offer a wide coverage of topics. We hope that it will be a valuable reference for students, instructors, researchers and industry practitioners. We believe this is particularly an attractive feature of this book, as the very limited selection of books available on ad hoc networks we are aware of are written primarily for academicians/researchers. We have attempted to make this book useful for both the academicians and the practitioners alike.