Hierarchical mesh tree protocol for efficient multi-hop data collection

This paper proposes a novel routing protocol named Hierarchical Mesh Tree Protocol (HMTP) that achieves efficient routing at the MAC layer for multi-hop data collection in ad-hoc networks, wireless sensor networks, intelligent transportation system networks, etc. The proposed protocol enables the self-organization of a network into a hierarchical mesh tree topology. The mesh tree topology is used to select the optimal route from a terminal to the root of the tree among the different branches available in order to yield an efficient, scalable and robust routing. The HMTP also enables the terminals to autonomously maintain and update the network mesh tree topology. The hierarchical mesh tree (HMT) alleviates the drawbacks of the conventional cluster-tree proposed in the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and the quasi-mesh tree proposed in the IEEE 802.15.4m standard. The simulations results show that HMTP drastically improves the data collection performance in comparison with the mentioned conventional tree-based routing protocols.