Cross layer multi QoS metric routing for multimedia traffic in 802.11E over MANETs

Abstract

To support QoS for a multimedia traffic, IEEE 802.11e standard Enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) has been proposed. However, the EDCA is more focused on providing quality of service(QoS) solution at the MAC layer, which is necessary, but perhaps not sufficient as the layered TCP stack architecture does not satisfy the QoS demands in ad hoc network. This is due to the fact that routing protocol is responsible for the successful packet delivery and QoS Support. The conventional single scalar routing protocols are not suitable for high traffic QoS sensitive multimedia traffic load on Mobile ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). The paper proposes a Cross layer Multimetric link disjoint Multipath Routing (CMMR) protocol based on distinct QoS constraints. The paper uses cross-layer communications to consider multiple layer metrics like MAC queue utilization, node density degree, and mobility factor to achieve channel state awareness and keep the up to date status of the route in terms of QOS proficiency at each intermediate node. The proposed algorithm is validated with an extensive simulation with high real time traffic using NS3. The results show significant improvement of CMMR in terms of packet delivery, and end-to-end delay.