In the network computing domain, mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) have gained prominence during the recent years. These networks have been used in almost all domains of today’s life; especially in military and emergency operations. However, these application areas demand higher performance. It has been observed that better performance can’t be achieved without improved network management and the detailed network performance awareness. In this direction, this research work investigates the behavior of mobile ad hoc network under two transport protocols i.e. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). The work analyzes various parameters such as bandwidth, throughput, jitter and out of order delivery etc. A test-bed has been established in university campus and the data transferred over the network is analyzed using iperf performance monitoring tool.