Generic Energy-Efficient Geographic Routing for Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks

The proposed energy-efficient geographical routing (EGR) mechanism is generally applicable to reduce energy consumption in wireless communication networks. No matter for table-driven or on-demand ad-hoc routing algorithms, EGR enhances them by constructing an initial routing path considering location information. Then, to further improve energy utilization it selects relay nodes of links on the initial path. The EGR finds an optimum relay node in a relay region between any two traffic nodes to conserve energy and balance traffic load. The relay region is derived from the radio propagation model constraining energy-saving when relaying transmissions between two nodes. Any node within this region is a relaying candidate to decrease total traffic energy consumption and to balance traffic load. According to the Energy-Proportional Principle (EPP), we also propose an energy-saving criterion. To balance traffic load, the EGR follows the EPP and in the relay region selects the relay node with the highest score corresponding to the criterion. Compared to the traditional routing methods, EGR effectively utilizes energy and prolongs network lifetime.