A novel approach for void avoidance in wireless sensor networks

We propose a novel approach to treat the problem of void avoidance in sensor networks. In our approach, the choice of the forwarding region around a discovered void is oriented by the locations of (i) the sender node, (ii) the void center and (iii) the destination node. Three void-avoidance schemes are described which use the same void-discovery algorithm. Based on an oriented face routing, the first scheme is used by the boundary nodes to prevent packets from dropping. The second scheme is used by sender nodes located n-hops away from the void boundary to launch a preventive rerouting. The third scheme tends to protect packets from both the concave zones and the boundaries nodes of voids. Proposed schemes are simple to implement. They save network resources and could be easily associated with existing geographic routing protocols. Simulation results show the efficiency of the proposed approach. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.