An efficient context-aware opportunistic routing protocol

Abstract

Opportunistic routing is designed for an environment where there is no stable end-to-end routing path between source node and destination node, and messages are forwarded via intermittent contacts between nodes and routed using a store-carry-forward mechanism. In this paper, we consider PRoPHET(Probabilistic Routing Protocol using History of Encounters and Transitivity) protocol as a base opportunistic routing protocol and propose an efficient context-aware opportunistic routing protocol by using the context information of delivery predictability and node type, e.g., pedestrian, car, and tram. In the proposed protocol, the node types of sending node and receiving node are checked. Then, if either sending node or receiving node is tram, messages are forwarded by comparing the delivery predictability of receiving node with predefined delivery predictability thresholds depending on the combination of sending node and receiving node types. Otherwise, messages are forwarded if the delivery predictability of receiving node is higher than that of sending node, as defined in PRoPHET protocol. Finally, we analyze the performance of the proposed protocol from the aspect of delivery ratio, overhead ratio, and delivery latency. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol has better delivery ratio, overhead ratio, and delivery latency than PRoPHET protocol in most of the considered simulation environments.