Energy-efficient adaptive routing in wireless ad hoc and mesh networks

In this study, the authors focus on energy-efficient routing in wireless ad hoc and mesh networks. Since the existing energy-efficient routing algorithms are fixed and unaware of the channel fading dynamics, they may be suitable if the antennas at network nodes are situated in very high altitudes and have highly directive links. Although, some physical experimental results suggest that even in such scenarios the effect of fading may not be negligible. Particularly in urban areas, the impact of fading cannot be ignored. Thus, when deployed in real world scenarios, current energy-efficient routing algorithms suffer from severe performance degradation in terms of power consumption. In this study, the authors first introduce fading aware decision metrics that help the current node select the optimal next hop destination. Then, using these metrics, the authors propose a power saving routing (PSR) algorithm that takes into account the multipath fading effect. The algorithm is optimised based on the location knowledge of the nodes and the localised channel condition of each node. Simulation results confirm that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing well-known PSR algorithm.