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Prolonging the network lifetime is a crucial constraint in wireless sensor networks. Since data communication requires a more energy consumption than any other process, sensor nodes necessitate an energy efficient communication. Most related works generally consider the propagation path loss model to capture the channel effects for the energy consumption model and the routing metric choice. Nevertheless, this model does not incorporate the small-scale fading. Thus, it is inaccurate to evaluate link reliability. In this paper, we derive the analytical expression of the energy consumption by including the small-scale channel fading and its impact on energy efficiency. Then, we propose a cross-layer approach based on joint network and physical layers by including small and large scale fading. We improve the ad hoc on-demand distance vector protocol at the route discovery mechanism and the data transmission by considering both SNR and residual energy thresholds, and a power adjustment algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed cross-layer approach significantly prolongs the network lifetime while guaranteeing a communication efficiency level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]