Return to search

Low-Overhead Opportunistic Routing for Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks in a Fading Environment

The development of miniaturized radio and sensing technologies have
enabled the deployment of large quantities of wireless sensors
capable of forming multi-hop networks. Emerging applications of this
technology such as surveillance and disaster monitoring have
throughput and efficiency requirements not met by current routing
algorithms. These requirements are also shared by ad-hoc networks.

Early routing protocols for these wireless networks were based on
algorithms designed for wired networks. Geographic routing (routing
based on position), was proposed. These algorithms perform poorly
since they do not account for the fading and interference effects of
wireless channels. Recent protocols that have attempted to account
for the wireless channel focus on single-hop situations and are not
readily extensible to multi-hop networks.

In this thesis we present a framework for routing based on a
distributed routing decision and provide several example protocols.
This framework provides a cross-layer design where the routing
decision is decided through silent negotiation between candidate
relays. We investigate the performance and parameters of this
framework. We then present an example protocol using this framework
which provides low-overhead opportunistic routing using cooperative
diversity. This protocol uses the intrinsic characteristics of the
wireless channel to achieve diversity while still maintaining
relatively low overhead. An adaptation of the protocol for
heterogeneous networks equipped with multiple antennas has also been
discussed and evaluated through simulations. We also investigate
another protocol based on this framework using the product of the
instantaneous packet reception rate and the marginal progress
towards the destination as a routing metric, offering enhanced
throughput.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/19749
Date15 November 2007
CreatorsHamilton, Benjamin Russell
PublisherGeorgia Institute of Technology
Source SetsGeorgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

Page generated in 0.0016 seconds