Improving connectivity and power efficiency in wireless ad hoc networks through agent nodes

In this paper, we present a framework that improves the reliability and reduce the power consumption of a wireless ad hoc network through the deployment of supplementary nodes called agents. Agents are stationary nodes that have less stringent power constraints than the battery-operated mobile nodes. Placed in a mesh-like formation, agents enhance the connectivity of an ad hoc network by reducing the probability of having a partitioned system. We also show that the power consumption of user nodes is significantly decreased with a clever choice of the routing strategy, one that picks the routes that go through the agent nodes as often as possible, hence preventing the mobiles from relaying packets. In addition, the impact of a power control mode is analyzed. Even though such a mode already promises power efficiency, we demonstrate that the amount of power savings is further increased when the power control is used within the agent scheme. Finally, we present the traffic simulation results to assess the maximum throughput of no-agent and agent-supported networks under various routing strategies like bandwidth-conserving, power-conserving, etc. Some degradation in maximum throughput can be observed as a result of forcing routes to go through agent nodes