Comparative Study of Fault Detection Techniques in Wireless Networks and Manets

The internet has dominated global communication for over three decades, largely due to the robustness and ease of deployment offered by wired networks. However, in recent years, the decreasing hardware costs associated with wireless networks have significantly boosted their popularity worldwide. Traditional wireless networks typically require a central device, such as a router (acting as a server), to which multiple devices (clients) connect wirelessly. In contrast, Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) operate without such centralized devices. MANETs are decentralized wireless networks where each node can function as both a host and a router, allowing for flexible and dynamic communication without relying on fixed infrastructure. WSNs consist of spatially dispersed sensor nodes that monitor environmental conditions and communicate wirelessly, often without a central server, to collect and transmit data. The objective of this study is to identify faulty readings in wireless networks, specifically in WSNs and MANETs, by utilizing local diagnostic messages to create a global diagnosis status table. This approach aims to detect both hard and soft faults and facilitate comparative analysis between WSNs and MANETs.