Mobile ad hoc networks have gained light in recent years and provide significant scope for research. Its various aspects considered for research include routing, bandwidth limitations, packet delivery ratio, etc. Researchers have proposed numerous routing algorithms for ad hoc networks among which, the DSR protocol is one effective protocol designed for MANETs. This protocol is highly adaptive to the topological changes in a network during data transmission, which enables the network to be self-configuring and self-organizing irrespective of the existent infrastructure. This paper explores the underlying concepts of the DSR protocol and analyzes its performance, along with a brief introduction to the wireless networks and routing protocols.