On the Pitfalls of Directional Location–based Randomized Routing

Many location–based MANET routing algorithms rely on local decisions based on coordinates of neighboring nodes. In order to deal with the dead ends reached by the deterministic nature of location–based routing, randomized versions have been proposed. Randomization is seen also as helpful for dealing with highly dynamic topologies due to mobility. In addition, directional transmission is considered as one of the possible ingredients for lower energy consumption and higher capacity. We combine concepts of directional transmission with randomized location–based routing in a scheme called Directional Location-based Randomized Routing (DLR). Our simulation study demonstrates that while the packet delivery rate increases, one must be cautious when considering such combined schemes for the sake of energy efficiency.