CrossTalk: a data dissemination-based crosslayer architecture for mobile ad-hoc networks

Unlike infrastructure-based networks, mobile ad-hoc networks suffer from severe performance problems due to their dynamic nature. The medium is shared and interference-prone, routes are unstable, energy can be a limiting factor for devices such as sensor nodes just to name one. To overcome those problems, cross-layer architectures are a promising new approach. They can reduce the effect of the aforementioned problems and therefore increase scalability and reliability of such networks. This paper introduces CrossTalk, a cross-layer architecture based on data dissemination that enables each node in an ad-hoc network to evaluate its own status locally against that of the network for decision processes such as routing. Furthermore, we propose a load balancing algorithm based on our architecture that achieves significant improvements in load distribution and packet delivery delay.