Energy-Load Aware Routing Metric for Hybrid Wireless Mesh Networks

Hybrid Wireless Mesh Networks provide improved connectivity and resilience over legacy networks. However, in a highly mobile environment with intermittent connectivity among devices, such networks suffer from data loss. Mobile clients lose energy rapidly resulting in unstable links. Rapidly changing traffic patterns can also result in congestion leading to deterioration of network services. In this paper a new routing metric, ELARM, for hybrid wireless mesh networks is proposed. ELARM chooses best route based on link stability and network load conditions. An algorithm to evaluate link stability based on receiving node´s energy conditions is also proposed. We run a series of simulations to compare our proposed metric with two of its most promising predecessors namely WCETT and D-WCETT. The results show marked improvement in packet delivery ratio and average network latency for highly mobile environments at the cost of slight increase in routing overhead.