Abstract-Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) also called mesh networks are self-configuring networks of mobile devices connected by wireless links. MANETs are deployed in situations where there is no existing infrastructure, such as emergency search and rescue, military, battlefields, etc. Each application has a different set of requirements. In this paper we concentrate on Emergency search and rescue operations which rely heavily on the availability of the network. The availability is a direct cost of the overall network lifetime, i.e., energy of the nodes. There are many strategies available at different levels of the OSI model to improve the network lifetime. The focus is on developing a network layer strategy, i.e., one that uses routing protocols. AODV protocol is seen to be the most energy efficient protocol.Firstly we select two existing energy efficient routing protocols based on AODV, each of which is based on a different energy cost metric. And then design a protocol that is a combination of both, hence a combination of two energy cost metrics. Secondly we evaluate the performance of this protocol against the single energy metric AODV protocol and against traditional AODV. The performance metrics used for evaluation are packet delivery ratio, throughput, convergence time, network lifetime and average energy consumed. The simulation is done using NS2 network simulator.

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