Cross Layer Design for Power Control and Link Availability in Mobile Adhoc Networks

Frequent changes in network topology due to mobility and limited battery power of the mobile devices are the key challenges in the adhoc networks. The depletion of power source may cause early unavailability of nodes and thus links in the network. The mobility of nodes causes frequent routes breaks and adversely affects the required performance of the applications. We propose a cross layer design for the dynamic power control protocol and link prediction (DPCPLP) that provides a combined solution for power conservation as well as link availability. This combines the effect of optimum transmit power and received signal strength based link availability estimation with AODV routing protocol using cross layer approach. This method proposes to use optimum transmit power for transmitting the packets to a neighboring node to increase the battery life of adhoc nodes and received signal strength based link prediction to increase the availability of the links. In this paper, the transmit power and received signal strength of the packets are cross-layer interaction parameters to provide the combined solution for power conservation and reliable route formation with increased availability of links and thus the routes amongst sources and destinations. Further, this increases network and nodes’ lifetime and capacity. It improves throughput and packet delivery ratio by spatial reuse, prior prediction of link breaks and initiating the route repair. It also reduces end-to-end delay and power consumption by use of optimum transmit power. Through simulations, we have shown that our proposed protocol shows better performance.