The approach for managing the topology in a MANET includes, at the network layer of a wireless mobile node, operating a link state or other routing protocol to discover routes from the at least one wireless node to other wireless nodes within the MANET. The routing protocol includes the use of a global topology database storing global network topology information. The method also includes, at the network layer, providing the global network topology information from the global topology database of the routing protocol to the MAC sublayer. Also, at the data link layer, the MAC sublayer is controlled to perform neighbor connection management based upon the global network topology information from the global topology database. The approach may provide enhanced QoS, latency and resistance to link and node failures within MANETs.