A Hybrid Cross-Layer Routing Protocol for MANETs

Wireless link effects impose unique challenges to routing protocols in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). In this paper, we propose Hybrid Cross-Layer Routing (HCLR) protocol designed and implemented based on the premise of being able to leverage a pair of proactive and reactive routing schemes. While the former is used to avoid long routing discovery latencies, the latter is used to compensate against wireless link effects thereby allowing for making more intelligent routing decisions. Compared to standalone proactive or reactive routing protocols, HCLR provides a two-tier improvement logic by performing local on-demand search in an n-hop neighborhood utilizing a 2-tuple cross-layer routing metric. We implement HCLR in Linux Quagga suite and demonstrate its performance improvements compared to OSPF MANET Designated Routing (MDR) through emulation studies.