Cross-layering represents a perspective design principle for adapting natively wired protocols to the wireless scenario and for improving their performance. The paper explores the possibilities of cross-layer design as a candidate tool for performance optimization, focusing on problems deriving from the usage of ARQ schemes in today?s wireless networks and proposes a novel and general cross-layer interaction scheme between the transport and the link layers. Achieved results in the framework of a IEEE 802.11-based multi-hop wireless network demonstrate the value of the proposed framework, and allow to provide guidelines for future work on the topic.