Unlike a fixed wireless network, wireless ad-hoc or on-the-fly networks are characterized by the lack of infrastructure. Nodes in a mobile ad-hoc network are free to move and organize themselves in an arbitrary fashion. Each user is free to roam about while communicating with others. The path between each pair of the users may have multiple links, and the radio between them can be heterogeneous. This allows an association of various links to be a part of the same network. Mobile ad-hoc networks can operate in a stand-alone fashion or could possibly be connected to a larger network such as the Internet.

Ad-hoc networks are suited for use in situations where an infrastructure is unavailable or to deploy one is not cost effective. One of many possible uses of mobile ad-hoc networks is in some business environments, where the need for collaborative computing might be more important outside the office environment than inside, such as in a business meeting outside the office to brief clients on a given assignment. Work has been going on to introduce the fundamental concepts of game theory and its applications in telecommunications. Game theory originates from economics and has been applied in various fields. Game theory deals with multi-person decision making, in which each decision maker tries to maximize his utility. The cooperation of the users is necessary to the operation of ad-hoc networks; therefore, game theory provides a good basis to analyze the networks.

A mobile ad-hoc network can also be used to provide crisis management services applications, such as in disaster recovery, where the entire communication infrastructure is destroyed and resorting communication quickly is crucial. By using a mobile ad-hoc network, an infrastructure could be set up in hours instead of weeks, as is required in the case of wired line communication. Another application example of a mobile ad-hoc network is Bluetooth, which is designed to support a personal area network by eliminating the need of wires between various devices, such as printers and personal digital assistants. The famous IEEE 802.11 or Wi-Fi protocol also supports an ad-hoc network system in the absence of a wireless access point.

In conclusion, mobile ad-hoc networks allow the construction of flexible and adaptive networks with no fixed infrastructure. These networks are expected to play an important role in the future wireless generation. Future wireless technology will require highly-adaptive mobile networking technology to effectively manage multi-hop ad-hoc network clusters, which will not only operate autonomously but also will be able to attach at some point to the fixed networks.

Dr. Humayun Bakht completed his Ph.D at the School of Computing and Mathematics in Liverpool at John Moores University. Prior to his current course of studies, he has successfully completed his MSc Software Engineering and BSc Electronics Engineering from University of Liverpool UK and Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, Pakistan. Humayun's research interest is mobile ad-hoc networks, in particular, the development of a new routing algorithm for this type of networking. He can be reached at humayunbakht@yahoo.co.uk and you can visit his Web site at http://www.geocities.com/humayunbakht/.