An Efficient Bypassing Void Routing Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

Since the sensor node’s distribution in a wireless sensor network (WSN) is irregular, geographic routing protocols using the greedy algorithm can cause local minima problem. This problem may fail due to routing voids and lead to failure of data transmission. Based on the virtual coordinate mapping, this paper proposes an efficient bypassing void routing protocol to solve the control packet overhead and transmission delay in routing void of WSN, which is called EBVRPVCM. The basic idea is to transfer the random structure of void edge to a regular one through mapping the coordinates on a virtual circle. In EBVRPVCM, some strategies, executed in different regions, are selected through virtual coordinates to bypass routing void efficiently. The regular edge is established by coordinate mapping that can shorten the average routing path length and decrease the transmission delay. The virtual coordinate mapping is not affected by the real geographic node position, and the control packet overhead can be reduced accordingly. Compared with RGP and GPSR, simulation results demonstrate that EBVRPVCM can successfully find the shortest routing path with higher delivery ratio and less control packet overhead and energy consumption.