Abstract
Routing is one of the most important reasons behind clustering in MANETs. However, the frequent changes of the clusterheads affect the performance of the routing protocol. The route between two nodes changes constantly as the clusterhead set changes. Maintaining and minimizing the routes interruptions are two ways of keeping the stability of the network. We claim that the lifetime of a particular route is dependent on all the clusterheads involved in this route. By maintaining the route lifetime, we can keep the network in stable condition as long as possible. Therefore, we propose a localized cluster-based rerouting and resource reservation (LC3R) protocol with packet redundancy over primary and secondary clusterhead chains. This protocol intends to improve the performance of MANETs by increasing the route lifetime to enhance the network stability and developing a reliable cluster-based routing protocol to support the QoS requirements.