A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or MANET is a decentralized wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it is not based on preexisting infrastructure such as routers on wired networks or access points on managed wireless networks (infrastructure). Instead, each node participates in routing by forwarding data to other nodes, so determining which nodes to forward data is done dynamically based on network connectivity and the routing algorithm in use.
Mobile ad hoc wireless networks are self-configuring dynamic networks in which nodes can move freely. Wireless networks lack the complexities of infrastructure configuration and management, allowing devices to create and join networks "on the go," anywhere, anytime.
The first wireless data network is called the "packet radio" network and was sponsored by the Advanced Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the early 1970s. Bolt, Beranek and Newman Technologies (BBN) and SRI International designed, built and experimented with these early systems. Among the experimenters were Robert Kahn, Jerry Burchfiel and Ray Tomlinson. Similar experiments took place in the Ham radio community with the ax25 protocol. These early packet radio systems predated the Internet, and in fact were part of the motivation of the original Internet protocol suite. Later DARPA experiments included the Survivable Radio Network (SURAN) project, which took place in the 1980s. Another third wave of academic activity began in the mid-1990s with the emergence of cheap 802.11 radio cards for personal computers . Current wireless ad-hoc networks are primarily designed for military utility.
The decentralized nature of wireless ad-hoc networks makes them suitable for a variety of applications where central nodes can not be trusted and can improve network scalability compared to managed wireless networks, although theoretical and practical limits to The overall capacity of such have been identified. Minimum configuration and rapid deployment make ad hoc networks suitable for emergencies such as natural disasters or military conflicts.