Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF): 1.711 International Journal of Modern Trends in Engineering and Research www.ijmter.com     191 e-ISSN: 2349-9745 p-ISSN: 2393-8161 Comparison of Various Unicast-Multicast Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks Chirag R. Patel 1 , Rajesh H. Davda 2 1,2 Computer Engineering Department, C. U. Shah College of Engineering & Technology, Wadhwan (Gujarat) Abstract: A Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is a self configuring network which consists of mobile nodes with no permanent infrastructure. In a MANETs, there is no difference between a host node and a router so that all nodes can be source plus forwarders of traffic. The task of finding routes in Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is an important factor in determining the efficiency of any MANET routing protocols. This paper describes about the basic idea of different routing protocols and its efficient use in MANET. There are several routing protocols based on UNICAST and MULTICAST. This paper will conclude the main characteristics of these protocols with comparison and suggest the best suited protocol for particular topology or network. Keywords: MANET, Unicast Routing Protocol, Multicast Routing Protocol. I. INTRODUCTION The rapid growth in the mobile communication is mainly due to the mobility offered to end users, providing information access to anywhere, easy deployment, and user friendliness. These types of networks have independent centralized administration; user can enter the networks and leave the networks easily. One of the important research areas in MANET is establishing and maintaining the ad hoc network through the use of routing protocols. Wireless communication technology have been developed with two primary models one is fix infrastructure based model in which much of the nodes are mobile and connected through fixed backbone nodes using wireless medium. Another model is Mobile Ad-hoc network. Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs) are comprised of mobile nodes (MNs) that are self-organizing and there are no specific routers, servers, access points for MANET. Design issue for developing a routing protocol for wireless environment with mobility is very different and more complex than those for wired network with static nodes [1]. Each device in a MANET is free to move independently in any direction, and will therefore change its links to other devices frequently. Depending upon the nature of application, appropriate routing protocol is implemented. UNICAST and MULTICAST protocols are the two classes of MANET routing protocols and each constitute a set of protocols. 1.1. Characteristics of MANET MANETS have some characteristics: Bandwidth-constrained: Variable capacity links: Wireless links will continue to have significantly lower capacity than their hardwired counterparts. In addition, the realized throughput of wireless communications after accounting for the effects of multiple access, fading, noise, and interference conditions, etc. is often much less than a radio's maximum transmission rate. One effect of the relatively low to moderate link capacities is that congestion is typically the norm rather than the exception, i.e. aggregate application demand will likely approach or exceed network capacity