An approach to a cross layer-based QoE improvement for MANET routing protocols

Currently, multimedia communications are monopolizing Internet traffic. These services present highly demanding real-time requirements that need great bandwidths in order to provide acceptable quality levels. Meanwhile, the variety of network architectures employed by final users to access these contents is wider and wider. One of the most attractive access networks due to its ease-of-deployment and decentralized architecture is the Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs). The inherent dynamic nature of these networks entails the use of appropriate routing protocols in order to obtain good performance in the services supported by the system. In this work, we focus on evaluating the performance of the novel routing protocol Better Approach To Mobile Ad-hoc Networking (BATMAN) and the widely extended IETF experimental drafts Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) and Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) protocols supporting video traffic. The results obtained from a chain-topology network have been improved in terms of Quality of Experience (QoE) by means of different modifications at different OSI layers. We have found out that each protocol presents low performance in different scenarios that can be enhanced by means of the proposed techniques. As we show in this work, taking a proper action in the right OSI layer permits an improvement on the multimedia traffic support in MANETs.