Apparatus and method for determining aggregated link costs in a mobile ad hoc network

For use in a mobile ad hoc network formed by a plurality of mobile ad hoc network (MANET) nodes, a first MANET node capable of aggregating route cost information associated with a first route from a source MANET node to a destination MANET node, said first MANET node comprising:

• a radio frequency (RF) transceiver capable of wirelessly communicating with other ones of said plurality of MANET nodes;
• and
• a controller capable of receiving incoming data packets from said RF transceiver and sending outgoing data packets to said RF transceiver, wherein said controller receives a Route Request (RREQ) message generated by said source MANET node and retrieves initial route cost information from said RREQ message, said initial route cost information comprising at least one RF link cost parameter and at least one node cost parameter, wherein said controller updates said initial route cost information in said RREQ message by adding to said initial route cost information (i) an RF link cost parameter associated with an RF link to an immediately preceding MANET node between said first MANET node and said source MANET node in said first route and (ii) a first node cost parameter associated with said first MANET node, and wherein the controller is further capable of assigning a first node-specific weight to the at least one RF link cost parameter added to the initial route cost information and assigning a second node-specific weight to the at least one node cost parameter added to the initial route cost information.