  An ad-hoc wireless network is a collection of nodes that come together to
dynamically create a network, with no fixed infrastructure or centralized
administration. An ad-hoc network is characterized by energy constrained nodes,
bandwidth constrained links and dynamic topology. With the growing use of
wireless networks (including ad-hoc networks) for real-time applications, such
as voice, video, and real-time data, the need for Quality of Service (QoS)
guarantees in terms of delay, bandwidth, and packet loss is becoming
increasingly important. Providing QoS in ad-hoc networks is a challenging task
because of dynamic nature of network topology and imprecise state information.
Hence, it is important to have a dynamic routing protocol with fast re-routing
capability, which also provides stable route during the life-time of the flows.
  In this thesis, we have proposed a novel, energy aware, stable routing
protocol named, Stability-based QoS-capable Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector
(SQ-AODV), which is an enhancement of the well-known Ad-hoc On-demand Distance
Vector (AODV) routing protocol for ad-hoc wireless networks. SQ-AODV utilizes a
cross-layer design approach in which information about the residual energy of a
node is used for route selection and maintenance. An important feature of
SQ-AODV protocol is that it uses only local information and requires no
additional communication or co-operation between the network nodes. SQ-AODV
possesses a make-before-break re-routing capability that enables near-zero
packet drops and is compatible with the basic AODV data formats and operation,
making it easy to adopt in ad-hoc networks.
