Topology Mismatch Avoidable Cross-Layer Protocol for P2P File Discovery in MANETs

To resolve the topology mismatch problem when applying peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing over mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), a cross-layer protocol is proposed by combining P2P file discovery with the route discovery process at the network layer. In this protocol, the functionality of conventional routing protocols is extended to identify the file discovery request, and P2P connections are established on demand to avoid duplicated broadcast at both P2P and network layers. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol can significantly decrease the control overhead during file discovery process, and provide less lookup response delay than that of the off-the-shelf approaches.