A New Cross-Layer Interface for MANET

This paper explores the interaction between medium access control (MAC) techniques such as selective node silencing with physical-layer adaptive techniques such as spreading adaptation for direct-sequence spread-spectrum packet radio networks. Complex environments in ad hoc networks require a joint control of physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layers resources in order to optimize performance. The PHY layer and cross-layer engine estimate and predict the channel variations to evaluate the link´s future packet error rate (PER), for MAC layer optimization. We compare our proposed protocol to standard protocol approaches for this type of network using various measures to test network performance. The benefits of protocols which integrate the MAC protocol with higher layers are also considered.