Communication- and position-aware reconfigurable route optimization in large-scale mobile sensor networks

We consider the problem of route selection and optimization for a mobile sensor network, which involves two nodes transferring information over a large area using a number of intermediate routers in the presence of noise, path loss, multipath fading, and interference. The communication- and position-aware reconfigurable (COMPARE) route optimization framework is proposed to improve the end-to-end throughput of the routes in the realistic communication environment. Initially, a communication-aware route selection strategy selects the optimal route by integrating the routing decisions with the link quality. The quality of the wireless link is characterized by the reception probability, i.e., the probability of successfully receiving packets over a realistic communication link. The selected route is reconfigured by exploiting the multipath fading, position information, and the mobility of the nodes during the phase of position-aware optimization. The optimal position for a router is heuristically found using a priori information about fading channels and the positions of transmitting and interfering nodes. The router is guided to the optimal position using the feedback mobility control, and only the route selected by the COMPARE framework is used for data transmission between the source and destination node. We illustrate through simulations that the proposed framework provides routes with considerably better performance than conventional route selection metrics, in terms of the end-to-end throughput.