Towards an Integrated Solution for Node Localization and Data Routing in Sensor Networks

In this work, we propose an integrated solution to jointly solve the localization and data routing problems in sensor networks. In our solution, the localization system divides the network into Voronoi cells to reduce communication costs, and as a result, the system allows two ways for specifying a node location: the nodes ´ physical location or the Voronoi cell it belongs to. This localization system yields a natural hierarchy based on Voronoi cells that is used by the integrated routing algorithm we propose. The proposed geographic routing algorithm may use either the nodes ´ coordinates or the Voronoi cells to forward data packets. A key advantage of this routing algorithm is that no additional communication is required for route discovery, leading to a cost-free and very scalable routing algorithm. Such a dual solution, called Cellular (Cell Unified Localization And Routing) algorithm, to solve the localization and routing problems, represents a new trend of algorithms for sensor networks, where multiple problems are jointly solved to provide cheaper and integrated solutions.