CrossAid (XAid): towards a new scalable cross-layer architecture for MANETs

Nowadays, the cross-layer design approach, is the most relevant concept in mobile ad-hoc networks. It is obvious that designing this architecture for MANETs could be used for more than one objective such as QoS provisioning, security, and multicast transfer. In this work, we discuss trends and challenges on designing cross-layer communication protocols for mobile wireless networks. Our analysis are based on the comparison of several cross-layer mechanisms that we have introduced to improve application performance under specific scenario characteristics. Indeed, we study the simulation output obtained with and without considering layer interconnections. These results show that the performance of the inter-layer cooperation paradigm depends on the network characteristics and the application constraints. Our remarks lead to a description of a new cross-layer architecture "XAid", that aims to provide a mapping between the set of QoS requirements, network characteristics, and the appropriate basic or cross-layer protocol