Abstract—A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a non-centralized, self-organized, and self-managed wireless ad hoc network that is used in a specific circumstance. The changing nature of the network's architecture and nodes necessitates a routing protocol to ensure efficient source-to-destination communication. MANET manipulates different sectors of life such as rescue and emergency operations, real-time information, interpersonal communication, network portioning, and catastrophe management due to its ad hoc and non-identical uses. Routing and maintenance are critical parts of effective time management and considered research study for MANET communication. This study focuses on the routing and maintenance process of MANET that has dynamic change in topology and nodes to deliver data rapidly. The motivational component of MANET for the research is route discovery, and several techniques have been proposed for it. Each has higher expectations than the other. This comparative analysis reveals issues for route discovery and maintenance of MANET communication, such as whether one is better in different network conditions than the others. This study examines the literature on MANET route discovery and maintenance strategies. As a result, a comparison of several routing protocol techniques is made. To achieve improvement, these methods include some suggestions for performance improvement using routing protocols especially in disaster management. This study presents directions for future experimentation, which will be pursued to identify the most advantageous collection of tactics for meeting the needs of various applications.