For use in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET), a first MANET node for aggregating route cost information associated with a first route from a source MANET node to a destination MANET node. The first MANET node comprises: 1) a radio frequency (RF) transceiver for wirelessly communicating with other MANET nodes; and 2) a controller for receiving incoming data packets from the RF transceiver and sending outgoing data packets to the RF transceiver. The controller receives a Route Request (RREQ) message generated by the source MANET node and retrieves initial route cost information from the RREQ message. The initial route cost information comprises an RF link cost parameter for a preceding RF link between the first MANET node and the source MANET node and a node cost parameter for a preceding MANET node between the first MANET node and the source MANET node.