Abstract

The designs of routing protocols in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) have several challenges as the MANETs are resource constrained. The cross layer design optimization is needed to achieve the energy conservation. The cross layer optimization intends for providing the best solution form different layers in achieving the Quality of Service parameters. The traditional routing protocols were modified to consider the limitations of MANETs and developed routing protocols like DSDV, DSR and AODV to suit the needs of this dynamic network. MANETs are used for real time traffic transportation like video and audio along with data traffic and for real time traffic, providing routing with Quality of Service (QoS) is a challenging task. Although the conventional routing protocols of MANETs had been modified to provide QoS, most of the proposed protocols either concentrate on one or two QoS parameters in identifying a path. The path stability is ignored where the path break happens often due to node mobility resulting in link break or drain in node energy leading to node failure. The topology of the network can be controlled by transmission power of the node which also reduces the interference. Thus, it is possible to enhance the network performance parameters such as throughput and network lifetime. The requirement to achieve reduced end to end delay conflicts with the energy consumption. This contradictory issue and needed to be considered in the enhancement of the network lifetime. The Lifetime Enhancement Routing Protocol (LER) is proposed in MANET for selecting the efficient path to the destination which uses residual power and drain rate as cost metric. The LER protocol minimizes the node overutilization and provides load balancing.

Description