In mobile wireless ad hoc networks (MANETs), layering is frequently broken to cope with changes on the medium. Layering is also violated in order to implement autonomic behavior, which depends on correlating data from various layers to identify relevant events. This paper proposes a networking plane, called MANET knowledge plane (MANKOP), that stores information concerning all protocol layers. This plane improves network performance, as protocols may employ a broader range of inputs on their algorithms. Moreover, being an information repository, MANKOP eases the deployment of self-optimizing and self-configuring mechanisms. To showcase our solution, we use MANKOP to build transmission power control aware protocols, which increases the throughput of the network by up to 280%.