Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are selforganizing, rapidly deployable networks without any fixed infrastructure. In MANETs, mobile terminals can move freely, which cause frequent link breakage. Due to the dynamic nature of the network, finding a stable route for transmitting data is a challenging task. In order to adapt to the topological changes and provide some quality of service (QoS), this paper propose a novel link stability and energy aware routing algorithm with tradeoff strategy, and implement it on Ad Hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol (AODV), namely NLSEA-AODV. The new protocol sets up routes with high stability in route discovery based on link stability and node energy information, and predict the breaking link in route maintenance. Besides, the routing takes a route stability-hop count tradeoff strategy to select routes with high stability and low hop count. Simulation results show that the new protocol has a better overall performance than original AODV protocol, which improved the network utilization greatly. Index Terms-MANETs, quality of service, link stability, energy aware, AODV I. INTRODUCTION A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a dynamically changing network of arbitrarily moving wireless nodes that operate with a limited battery charge and transmission range where no fixed infrastructure or access point exists. Nodes in MANET usually move freely and communicate with other nodes by the help of intermediate nodes. Hence, routing is a critical issue and hot topic in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). However, routing is also especially difficult since node mobility may cause radio links to be broken frequently. Some conventional routing protocols in wired networks are not suitable for ad hoc networks. In this background, a large number of researchers pay their attention to this field and propose many efficient routing protocols for MANETs. These routing protocols generally can be categorized as proactive or reactive in nature [1]. Proactive routing protocols discover routes between every pair of nodes, irrespective of their requirement, through network-wide table updates or link-state updates. However, in a dynamically changing environment,