John Paul O Grady, Aidan McDonald

State of the Art: Ad Hoc Networking

Ad Hoc networks are multi-hop wireless networks where nodes may be mobile. These types of networks are used in situations where temporary network connectivity is needed. Ad hoc networks are formed on a dynamic basis, i.e. a number of users may wish to exchange information and services between each other on an ad hoc basis, in order to do this they will need to form an Ad Hoc network. An example of this may be found in a disaster relief situation. Here an Ad Hoc network could enable emergency services to co-ordinate emergency services more effectively or enable medics in the field to retrieve patient history from hospital databases (assuming that one or more of the nodes in the Ad Hoc network has connectivity to the Internet).

Smart spaces are defined as environments that allow people to perform tasks efficiently by offering unprecedented levels of access to information and assistance from computers. Ad Hoc networks will play a significant part in these environments, allowing people to exchange information and services; for example, people at a meeting could create an Ad Hoc network using their PDA’s or Laptops and exchange information relevant to the meeting. Indeed there are endless examples of where their use could be found.