ELGR: An Energy-efficiency and Load-balanced Geographic Routing Algorithm for Lossy Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Geographic routing is a highly active area of research in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) owing to its efficiency and scalability. However, the use of simple greedy forwarding decreases the packet reception rate (PRR) dramatically in unreliable wireless environments; this also depresses the network lifetime. Therefore, it is important to improve delivery performance and prolong MANET lifetime simultaneously. In this article, a novel geographic routing algorithm, named energy-efficiency and load-loalanced geographic routing (ELGR), is presented for lossy MANETs. ELGR combines energy efficiency and load balance to make routing decisions. First, a link estimation scheme for the PRR is presented that increases the network energy efficiency level. Second, a learning method is proposed to adaptively sense local network loads, allowing enhanced whole network load balance. The results of a simulation show that ELGR performs better than several other geographic routing algorithms; in particular it extends network lifetime by about 20%, with a higher delivery ratio.