Mobile ad-hoc and vehicular networks are excellent examples of the proliferation of wireless data communication technologies. A mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) consists of wireless devices which can dynamically be setup and can operate without any centralized control. One promising application of MANETs is the vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). A VANET is a combination of an architectural network and an ad-hoc network. VANETs are distributed self-organizing networks of mobile vehicles. This chapter introduces both MANETs and VANETs, their characteristics and challenges, and presents the various protocols and applications optimized for them.

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