This paper presents a coherent survey on the ad hoc wireless network, with the intent of serving as a quick reference to the current research issues in ad hoc networking. It starts with a background on the origin and development stages of ad hoc network, then summarizes the characteristics, capabilities, applications and broad range of research issues such as Routing, Medium Access, Multicasting, Quality of Service, TCP performance, Energy, Security and Bluetooth outlining the major challenges which have to be solved before widespread deployment of the technology is possible. Through this survey it would be seen that Ad hoc Networking presence an interesting research area inheriting the problems of wireless and mobile communications in their most difficult form.