Cross-layer Self-healing Mechanisms in Wireless Networks

The use of wireless mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) has gained rapid momentum, both in the commercial and non-commercial sectors. In the commercial sector, sensor networks are being considered for deployment for a wide variety of purposes including to sense robustness of elevators, bridges, and other structures and to explore the earth (e.g., oil, soil type, etc.). Examples in the noncommercial (military) sector include the use of MANETs in the battlefield. Regardless of the particular sector in which MANETs are being employed, one thing is common: MANETs are being used to collect, process, and relay vital information. As a result, it is critical that nodes in these networks be equipped to make decisions to ensure the integrity of information in an inherently unreliable environment. In this paper, we propose a Cross-layer Approach To Self-healing (CATS), in which nodes use information from each layer of the protocol stack to help the routing protocol maintain network reliability in the presence of failures. These actions serve both to provide uninterrupted communications amidst unforeseen failures and also to reduce packet latency and energy consumption.