Qos in mobile a hoc networks

The widespread use of mobile and handheld devices is likely to popularize ad hoc networks, which do not require any wired infrastructure for intercommunication. The nodes of mobile ad hoc networks operate as end hosts as well as routers. They intercommunicate through single-hop and multihop paths in a peer-to-peer fashion. With the expanding scope of applications of MANETs, the need to support QoS in these networks is becoming essential. This article provides a survey of issues in supporting QoS in MANETs. We have considered a layered view of QoS provisioning in MANETs. In addition to the basic issues in QoS, the report describes the efforts on QoS support at each of the layers, starting from the physical and going up to the application layer. A few proposals on interlayer approaches to QoS provisioning are also addressed. The article concludes with a discussion on the future directions and challenges in the areas of QoS support in MANETs.