Hypocomb: Bounded-Degree Localized Geometric Planar Graphs for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

We propose a radically new family of geometric graphs, i.e., Hypocomb (HC), Reduced Hypocomb (RHC), and Local Hypocomb (LHC). HC and RHC are extracted from a complete graph; LHC is extracted from a Unit Disk Graph (UDG). We analytically study their properties including connectivity, planarity, and degree bound. All these graphs are connected (provided that the original graph is connected) planar. Hypocomb has unbounded degree while Reduced Hypocomb and Local Hypocomb have maximum degree 6 and 8, respectively. To our knowledge, Local Hypocomb is the first strictly localized, degree-bounded planar graph computed using merely 1-hop neighbor position information. We present a construction algorithm for these graphs and analyze its time complexity. Hypocomb family graphs are promising for wireless ad hoc networking. We report our numerical results on their average degree and their impact on FACE routing. We discuss their potential applications and pinpoint some interesting open problems for future research.