Sonia et al. International Journal of Recent Research Aspects ISSN: 2349-7688, Vol. 3, Issue 1, March 2016, pp. 54-58 © 2014 IJRRA All Rights Reserved page- 54- Survey on Comparative Study of Protocols in Mobile Adhoc Network Sonia 1 , Er. Navneet Dhillon 2 , Rajanjeet Kaur 3 , Ramandeep Kaur 4 1 Associate Professor; Department of Information Technology, Malout Institute of Management & Information Technology, Malout. 2 Lecturer; Department of CSE; Malout Institute of Management &Information Technology, Malout. 3,4 Students ; Department of CSE; Malout Institute of Management &Information Technology, Malout. Abstract : Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of wireless mobile nodes that dynamically form a network on temporary basis without any support of central administration called infrastructureless network. Every node in MANET moves randomly to make multi-hop network topology that changes at unpredictable times. There are various routing protocols like DSDV, AODV, DSR which have been proposed for providing communication among the nodes in the network. This paper presents a survey on performance comparison of AODV and DSR based on metrics such as throughput, packet delivery ratio and average end-to-end delay and routing overhead.It also presents the various application areas of MANET along with its vulnerabilities. Keywords: MANET, AODV, DSDV, DSR, Throughput, Packet Delivery Ratio, Average End-to-End delay, Routing Overhead, NS2. I. INTRODUCTION A mobile ad hoc network, (MANET) is a infrastructureless network, that dynamically establish their own network on the fly, without having any central controller. MANET is a collection of independent mobile nodes that can communicate to each other via radio channels. The mobile nodes that are in radio range can directly communicate, whereas others needs the intermediate nodes to route their packets. Each of the node has a wireless interface to communicate with each other. Figure 1 shows a simple ad-hoc network with 3 nodes. Node 1 and node 3 are not within range of each other, however the node 2 can be used to forward packets between node 1and node 2. The node 2 will act as a router and these three nodes together form an ad-hoc network.[1] Fig1. MANET network with three nodes A. History of MANETs The mobile ad hoc network is classified into three types- first, second and third generation. Present ad hoc network are considered the third generation network. The first generation of ad hoc network goes back to 1970’s. The first generation are called Packet Radio Network (PRNET) . The Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) provide communication between computer and PRNET. The 2nd generation of ad hoc network is evolved in the 1980’s.The PRNET is then evolved into the (SURAN) Survivable Adaptive Radio Network .SURAN provides benefits by improving radio performance smaller, cheaper and power thrifty . This provided a packet-switched network to the mobile battlefield in an environment without infrastructure. The concept of commercial ad-hoc networks arrived in 1990's with note-book computers and other communications equipment. At that time, the idea of a collection of mobile nodes was proposed at several conferences. In the mid of 1990s, a lot of work has been done on ad hoc standards. With the evolution of IETF, the MANET working group was born, and it made effort to standardize routing protocols for ad hoc networks.[2] There are two types of mobile wireless networks. The 1st is known as infra-structured network. Applications of this type of wireless network include WLAN. The second type of mobile wireless network is known as infrastructureless mobile network, commonly called as MANET. MANET is usually a self configuring and self- organizing network that does not require any infrastructure. In this,all nodes are dynamically and