Abstract:
Node mobility, infrastructure-less network, open network boundary, and limited resources are general
characteristic features of a Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET). These characters open MANETs to many
security attacks. Network layer-based active attacks such as black-hole and gray-hole attacks are
common and destructive. Proposed solutions for these attacks failed to perform well. Some mechanisms
that are used in an infrastructure-based network were proposed as lightweight security mechanisms for
MANETs. One hundred and two reputed journal and quality conference papers were selected for the
review. In this paper, we comprehensively reviewed available security solutions, including lightweight
solutions on MANET. The review proved that there is a demand for a lightweight security solution
capable of operating with limited resources and mitigating active attacks without a performance drop
