A novel DSR-based energy-efficient routing algorithm for mobile ad-hoc networks

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are wireless networks consisting of a collection of untethered nodes with no fixed infrastructure. An important design criterion for routing protocols in ad hoc networks is power consumption reduction. We describe an energy-efficient mechanism that can be used by a generic MANET routing protocol to prevent nodes from a sharp drop of battery power. We apply the mechanism to the dynamic source routing (DSR) and propose a novel DSR-based energy-efficient routing algorithm referred to as the energy-dependent DSR (EEDSR). We compare the EDDSR algorithm with two of the most recent proposals in this area: the least-energy aware routing (LEAR) and the minimum drain-rate (MDR) mechanism. We show that EEDSR is the best approach to reduce and balance power consumption in a wide spectrum of scenarios.