Improving the Performance of Mobile Ad-Hoc Network Using Cross-Layer Design

Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is collection of wireless mobile hosts forming a temporary network with out the aid of any standalone infra structure or centralized administration. Mobile ad-hoc network have attributes such as wireless connection continuous changing topology, distributed operation and ease of deployment. Ad-hoc network has emerged as an important trend of future wireless systems that will provide ubiquitous wireless access. In this research we study that performance optimization challenges of ad-hoc network and cross layer processing to improve its performance. We implemented cross layer processing between physical (PHY), medium access control (MAC) and network (NET) layers using network simulator NS-2. The MAC layer adaptively selects a transmition data rate based on the channel signal strength information from the physical layer. The MAC layer utilization is sent to DSR routing protocol as a congestion aware routing metric for optimal route discovery.