A cross-layer stability-based on-demand routing protocol for mobile ad-hoc networks

It is widely known that having neighbourhood information can help on optimizing the operations of several protocols including routing and medium access protocols. This work presents a new stability-based routing protocol for mobile ad hoc protocols that effectively determine and use this information. Unlike existing similar protocols, our proposal has two main specific features. First, it is designed for on-demand routing protocols like AODV protocol and second, and most importantly, it uses the cross-layer paradigm to gather some useful measurement from the MAC layer. Hence, we develop adaptive stability metrics to identify stable links in a mobile wireless networking environment based on the analysis of routing protocol periodic messages. Our metrics then only rely on on-line statistical evaluation of observed link durations. Neither do they require information on signal strength, nodes speeds, nodes directions, radio conditions, or spacing of the mobile devices, nor do they depend on the availability of additional hardware such as GPS receivers or a synchronization of the devices. We demonstrate the ability of the metrics to select stable links with a high probability in a wide range of scenarios using ns-2 simulations.