A Case for Cross Layer Design: The Impact of Physical Layer Properties on Routing Protocol Performance in MANETs

In this paper, we evaluate the performance of routing protocols for mobile ad hoc network using different physical layer models. The results obtained shows that the performance obtained using idealized models such as the free space propagation model vary significantly when propagation effects, as path loss and shadowing are considered. This difference in performance indicates that optimization is required in the protocol development space that takes into account channel state information (CSI). Such an optimization requires a cross layer design approach to be adopted and a framework for protocol performance evaluation to be established. This workwould serve as a first step in this direction and here we provide comparative performance results through network simulations.